Klancemas 2018
by Ebhenah
Summary: A series of stories written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr
1. Chapter 1 Baby's First Snowfall

**Keith and Lance prepare to celebrate their son's first Christmas with the Space Family and experience their first snowfall together.**

 **Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"Baby's First Snowfall"**

 **Dec 1: First Snow**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

"Where's the camera?! The GOOD one? I like JUST had it in my hands! Dammit- we're going to miss it… or worse, I won't have pictures to send to my Mom!" Lance was rushing around like a chicken with his head cut off and Keith couldn't help but chuckle at him.

"Do you mean the one you just put on the table next to allllll of the other crap you've decided we absolutely need for this outing?" he asked mildly, not even pausing in his slow circuit of the room. Lance stopped, turning to the growing pile of supplies on the little kitchen table.

"Yes," he sighed, "that's the one I mean."

Christmas was in one week and this year Pidge was hosting, and since Pidge lived in a tiny deathtrap that was more 'secret lab' than 'home', she'd come up with the idea of a destination holiday for the entire "Pala-Fam", and rented them a block of cozy little cabins at a ski resort. Krolia and Shiro were all settled in with the Holts at the 'big' cabin that served as the main 'hosting' location. The others were scattered in smaller two bedroom cabins in pairs or small family units.

Lance's family had only agreed to letting them out of the big Cuban celebration on the condition that they spent Easter with them AND arrived in Cuba in time for something called 'Old Christmas Day'- which was a thing that Keith hadn't even known existed, but had something to do with an Epiphany or something. He loved Lance's family, but he was sure he would never be able to wrap his head around some of the Catholic stuff. Not that it really mattered right now. Because right now he was getting treated to the sight of Lance, happy and excited and being adorably scatterbrained.

"Want a checklist?" he asked, resorting to old wedding-planning coping techniques. They hadn't even fully unpacked, so it really shouldn't be THIS difficult to find everything they needed.

"Yes," Lance shot him a sheepish smile, "I just want everything to be perfect, you know?"

"I know babe," he answered, "okay- camera? Check. Phones? Check. Boots, coats, hats, scarves, mittens? All check. Fully stocked diaper bag? Check. Baby toboggan? Check. Extra blankets? Check. Looks good to me."

"Carrier!" Lance cried, rushing over to the massive suitcase of baby stuff he'd insisted they bring and rummaging until he found the weird not-a-backpack-thing they had for carrying the baby. "In case he hates the toboggan. He might."

"So we're good?" Keith asked.

"Yes, I think so. You've got Thace?"

"I do. He's happily drooling all over my… what did Matt call it? My 'parka'. See?" He turned so that Lance could get a glimpse of the dark-haired, blue-eyed baby in his arms. Thace was three months old and the light of their lives. He would forever be grateful to Lance's sister, Rachel, who had offered… no… INSISTED that she be their surrogate. "Let's go before you think of something else we absolutely have to have." They'd gotten pretty good at figuring out the bare minimum of baby STUFF that various outings required, but this was a whole new climate, and it seemed to be messing with Lance's head a bit.

Lance stuffed the carrier into the diaper bag, which he slung over his shoulder, then loaded the baby toboggan down with the extra blankets, hauled on his hat and mitts and headed for the door.

"Key?" Keith asked as he jostled the baby into a better position and grabbed his own mittens. Lance just held the cabin key up and rattled it as an answer as he opened the door.

A blast of cold wind hit him in the face and stopped him in his tracks, "maybe we should grab another-"

"Lance! We are walking from our cabin to the NEXT cabin," Keith laughed as he passed Lance and stepped outside, "not going on an arctic expedition. We are literally going next door. We are good. C'mon."

"I just don't want him to get cold," Lance muttered, setting out the sled and locking the cabin up.

"He won't have time to get cold, babe," he reassured his husband.

"Fine… fine… I know you are right… I just…"

"You worry, I know. It's sweet." Keith leaned in to kiss Lance gently. He loved how seriously Lance took parenting, even if it sort of manifested itself in frazzled chaos sometimes. Lance returned the kiss and Keith could feel some of the frenetic energy fade out, feel Lance become more centered and grounded with every passing second.

Unfortunately, the baby didn't find the kiss to be nearly as rewarding and after a minute or so, let out an angry squawk.

"Hey, hey chiquito," whispered Lance, turning his head to nuzzle the baby, "what are you so mad about, hmmm? You want your Papi to pay more attention to you?"

"We stopped moving." Keith pointed out. Thace was a baby that seemed to be personally affronted by staying still. So, essentially… a McClain.

"Right. Alright my little thrill-seeker, let's get you settled in your new ride, hmmm?" He scooped the baby out of Keith's arms and held him above his head as he talked, and Keith pretty much melted into a puddle at the sight. Lance was born to be a father. He was a total natural with kids, who ALL adored him, and every little interaction between him and their son made Keith fall in love with the guy all over again. It was ridiculous, really.

It didn't take long to get the squirmy baby secured in straps and blankets, and then- after a few dozen pictures of Thace; Thace and Papi; Thace and Daddy; Thace and Papi AND Daddy- they were on their way, walking hand in hand down the path to the big cabin. It wasn't far, maybe a 5 minute walk, but it was far enough to provide privacy and to let them really take in the incredible scenery.

The path was snow-covered, hard-packed to keep it from being slippery, but not shovelled. On either side of the path, pristine white snow blanketed a surprisingly gentle slope- considering they were on the side of a mountain. The sun had just started to set and the snow sparkled prettily in the changing light. They'd been so harried when they'd arrived earlier that day that Keith hadn't really paid much attention to the view.

"Wow," he whispered after a moment, "of all the planets, and everything we've seen in space… I don't think anything has managed to be MORE beautiful than Earth can be."

"I know, right?" Lance said, swinging their joined arms. "I didn't think anything could top Varadero beach… but this place just might."

"That is HIGH praise," Keith laughed.

"Just don't tell my family I said that- they are already mad at me for denying them Thace's first Christmas."

"We are going to be there for the Epipha-whatever… and we stayed with them for almost a MONTH when he was born. They can't be that mad!"

"Oh, they can… but they aren't the only ones who know how to lay out a guilt trip. I kept talking about all the Christmases your mother missed, and how we all bonded in space and made our own family…" Lance grinned at him.

"Evil," he chuckled, "my husband is evil. Your mother must be so pi- oh my god.. Look!"

The sky was glittering. It took a minute for him to connect what he was seeing with reality.

"It's snowing," Lance breathed, his voice awed.

They'd both seen snow before… on the ground. But neither had ever been anywhere cold when the snow was actually falling out of the sky. The sight was so magical they both stopped walking, just to watch it. Even Thace seemed mesmerized by the little floating snowflakes, gurgling happily to himself.

He turned to smile at Lance and his breath caught in his throat. His husband had his head tipped back as he gazed up at the sky. A couple of snowflakes had caught on his lashes, sparkling and twinkling as he blinked. His blue eyes were practically glowing with delight, his cheeks flushed and rosy from the cold air. But it was his smile- it was ALWAYS his smile- that did Keith in. How did one person manage to pack so much sheer JOY into a smile?

"Gorgeous," he whispered, squeezing Lance's hand.

"This tops Varadero beach," Lance breathed. Keith agreed, but he hadn't really been talking about the mountainside.

Lance turned to him, and his smile changed. He let go of Keith's hand and reached up, brushing the mitten against Keith's bangs, "you've got snow in your hair." The flakes dusted his face- little specks of cold that melted almost instantly and felt surprisingly like the spray from crashing waves. "You know what I've always wanted to do?"

"What, babe?" He made a mental note to thank Pidge for coming up with this plan. This was already the best Christmas he'd ever had- with his husband, and their son, in the snow.

"This!" Lance stuck his tongue out, head tipped back so far that his hat fell off, landing near Thace's feet in the toboggan. He giggled blissfully as snowflakes landed on his tongue, his eyes drifting shut from the happiness of it.

Keith lifted the camera and snapped a couple of pictures, not wanting to risk EVER forgetting how Lance looked right at this moment. Lance cracked one eye open to peek at him, letting him know that he hadn't missed the sound of the shutter. He felt his cheeks color, and was thankful that he could blame the cold air, and turned to take a bunch of pictures of the baby, who seemed to be loving the tickle of snowflakes melting on his pudgey little cheeks just as much as his Papi was and who looked every bit as beautiful against the white backdrop.

It was getting darker, and Thace's little nose was starting to run… and the others were waiting on them.

"We should get moving," Keith said on a sigh.

"One thing first," Lance whispered, turning to face Keith. He wrapped his free arm around Keith's neck and kissed him. It was strange- their faces were cool from the brisk air and the falling snow, but Lance's lips were warm, inviting. He smiled into the kiss in that way that Keith loved and held him close, the camera pinned between their chests and the happy noises of their son the only thing they could hear in the magical stillness of the moment.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."


	2. Chapter 2 Too Quiet

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"Too Quiet"**

 **Dec 2: Hot Cocoa**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

He should have known better. He really should have. He was from a big family, the youngest of five kids. That ALONE should have been enough. He also had tons of nieces and nephews- in blood and in spirit. On top of that, he had a solid decade of parenting under his belt.

So, there was really no excuse.

None.

When he'd heard QUIET giggling coming from the kitchen, before the morning alarm went off, he should have known he was waking up to SOME kind of cleaning nightmare.

Lance could only claim temporary insanity caused by actually sleeping through the entire night without interruption as justification for not immediately cluing in that the sweet sound of his children laughing was anything but a good thing. He had a set of TWINS for God's sake! Twins!

But no. He'd stirred, heard their little bell-like giggles, smiled and snuggled back into the soft pillows and the warm security of his husband's strong arms.

Although, to be fair- it was kind of hard to be anything but sleepily content when he was half buried under a dreaming and extra snuggly Keith, who had just last night gotten home from a week- as in seven ENTIRE days and nights- of dealing with Blade of Marmora business on some weirdly named top secret base on the other side of the damn universe.

So… you know… there was that.

But, he still should have known better. It wasn't until Keith had gone unnaturally still and whispered, "are they ALL happy? At the same time?" that reality had come crashing in. Because, as any parent can tell you, there are very, very few things that would warrant FOUR siblings all being happy at the same time. Christmas morning was one. The arrival of grandparents bearing gifts might do it. The arrival of the last resort, all-too-lenient babysitter (*cough cough* PIDGE *cough cough*) had a CHANCE of bringing such unilateral joy.

The return of a parent after a week? Maybe in some households, but not in the household of two Paladins, that's for sure.

Then.

Ohhhhh then….

THEN they'd heard the worst possible thing any parent can hear following a giggling child in another room.

A sound that made blood run cold and sleepy eyes fly open more surely than a fire alarm.

"Shhhhhhh…"

They both bolted out the the bed, grabbing robes (because HELLO, reunited after an entire week meant no pjs) and hastily donning them before racing out the door and down the stairs to the common living areas of their quarters.

Keith got to the entry of the kitchen first and skidded to a stop. He didn't even SAY anything.

That was bad.

There was a chorus of four, far too alert, FAR too cheerful and cute sounding little voices saying 'good morning!"

That was really bad.

Bad enough that Lance actually stopped and took a bracing breath- that turned into a silent prayer when he heard the crowning jewel of 'it's even worse than you thought'... the sickly sweet voice of their only daughter sing-songing "we missed you, Daddy!"

What did they do?! What did they do to his kitchen?

Thace was ten. Talia and Rai were seven. Kashi was three and a half. They'd been getting their own cereal and milk for breakfast on weekends for a while now without a problem (that's a parental milestone no one tells you about, but damn if it isn't his personal favorite!). There's usually some minor squabbling about who gets which bowl or whatever, but nothing that should warrant Talia laying on the little girl charm!

"I… missed... you... guys... too," Keith said, each word falling from his lips like he'd forgotten how to speak. "Ummm… what are you doing?"

He couldn't tell? Oh God! Keith was looking RIGHT AT THEM and he COULDN'T TELL what they were doing!

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmm," Talia again- oh dear lord, it never boded well when Thace let his little sister speak for the group. It meant he was banking on her cuteness and charm to win them leeway. "Kashi wanted hot cocoa?"

"Uh. Huh. Don't move." Keith turned away from the kitchen and faced him. "Lance, babe… I'm sure it looks worse than it is."

"Cocoa?" he squeaked. "Is my entire kitchen covered in cocoa?"

Keith closed his eyes and nodded once.

"Have… have you ever tried to CLEAN cocoa powder?" he asked, his voice dangerously high.

"No, but…"

"It's IMPOSSIBLE," Lance insisted. "It either puffs away and makes more of a mess, or it just keeps thinning out into more and more cocoa water… it's worse than rice cereal!"

"We'll split the job," Keith offered, "it won't be that bad."

"Split it? Split it HOW?"

"Well," Keith glanced back into the kitchen and swallowed and that was the final straw for Lance. He pushed past his husband and got all of three steps into the kitchen before his body locked up on him and he made a noise he'd only ever heard his mother make.

"The CEILING?!" he gasped, "the tallest of you is FOUR FEET NOTHING! How?! HOW?! Keith! It looks like Shiro was trying to BAKE IN HERE!"

"Lance, it's not that bad," Keith soothed.

"My children look like coal miners!" He screeched, pointing at the kids, who were all thoroughly coated in cocoa dust, "look at them! Just LOOK at my babies!"

"Lance," Keith tried again, catching Lance's hands in his own, trying to literally rein him in a bit.

That did not work.

Instead, without the ability to make grand flourishes, Lance just… lost his grasp on the English language completely. His eyes flew wide and he started ranting about the mess, the waste of difficult to find and expensive cocoa, the nightmare of trying to get those NEW CHRISTMAS pajamas clean ever again. Rapid-fire Cubano fell from his lips, heavily punctuated with eyerolls, and teeth sucking, and head weaves (that would have made more sense if he could have moved his arms), and distinctly Cuban noises of irritation and disbelief.

Keith kept nodding along at appropriate intervals, occasionally adding an "I know" or "yes, of course' but mostly just letting Lance run out of steam… which took a while. Thankfully, all of the children knew not to interrupt this process and just stood there, watching their fathers. By the time Keith pulled Lance into a hug, and kissed him sweetly, he had some semblance of a plan in mind.

"Right, this room is a disaster and we are NOT making Papi clean it up, are we?" he asked his children, trying to sound stern but not mean.

Their kids were smart enough to recognize that there was one and only one acceptable answer to this question and Lance relaxed a tiny, almost imperceptible amount, at the chorus of "no, Daddy."

"Papi is going to take a nice, long shower," Keith continued, "while we… I don't know… power hose? Sand blast? This whole room. Nobody move a muscle until I get back. I mean it- be statues!"

He dragged Lance out of the kitchen and up to the bathroom, and every time Lance opened his mouth to say ANYTHING, Keith silenced him with a kiss. "Take a shower. As long as you want. Until we run out of hot water, I don't care. Just… let me deal with the kids. You've been on your own with them all week. It's just a mess. I can handle a mess. You, relax. Consider this your morning off. Okay?"

"Keith, I can't ask you to handle all that-"

"Stop it. You aren't. I'm tagging you out. I've got this. I love you. Take a shower."

"I love you, too," he sighed, glancing at the door. "I can help…"

"No. You just transformed into your grandmother right in front of me. Now, I love your Abuela and all, but it's not your best look. I would MUCH prefer to spend the rest of the day with the man I fell in love with and our four, very precious, very… trying… kids. So… shower for you. Kitchen duty for the rest of us. No arguments."

Lance sighed, "my Abuela? Really? You couldn't have said my mother?"

"Your mother doesn't suck her teeth like that when she's mad." He grinned at him, and his expression was so earnest and his eyes so full of love that Lance just sagged in relief.

"Get pictures," Lance sighed, reaching over to turn the water on in the shower.

"I will," he promised, cradling Lance's face tenderly and kissing him again, "I love you."

"I don't deserve you," Lance whispered, "cocoa is such a nightmare."

"It can't be that bad."

"God, I love you, you clueless, clueless man."

By the time Lance was out of the shower- which was, admittedly, the longest shower he'd taken since that time he'd gotten knocked into some kind of sulfurous mud on a mission- he could smell an ACTUAL breakfast. Eggs, bacon… toast, maybe? He dried off and got dressed, and he couldn't decide if he was giving them more time to clean, or just putting off the horror of seeing how much work was STILL left for him in the kitchen.

Keith headed him off at the bottom of the stairs, turning him towards the living room with a tray. "Nope- we aren't done. You sit in here and eat."

"Keith, I've calmed down," he protested, "you don't have to…"

"I do. I am. The kids are pretty much finished cleaning everything, but there is a special surprise they want to give you before I go hose them down. So, sit. Eat."

He did as he was told, because in all honesty, the longer he could go without seeing the kitchen, the happier he was. The lights of the Christmas tree in the corner of the room blinked on and off to the sound of carols and the combination of light and music was soothing. The bookshelves were filled with framed Christmas artwork the kids had done over the years- handprint Reindeer, footprint trees, pompoms and glitter glued to construction paper ornaments, and more. "Baby's First Christmas" stockings with the names and years written in glitter glue hung on the wall of the stairwell, right in his line of sight. They were growing up too fast. The other night Kashi had pushed him out of his room without a story because 'stories were for babies', and Kashi was very insistent that he was 'big' and 'not babies!'.

He kind of missed having a baby in the house. He didn't miss the lack of sleep, or the diapers, or trying to decipher what might be causing the screaming at three am when everything SHOULD be fine… but he missed other parts. The way that their heads smelled. How Talia used to pat the side of his face as she dozed off on his chest. How Rai slept with his arm flung over his eyes like a tiny little drama queen. The way Thace would get all indignant if he stopped moving for even an instant. When Kashi would growl at Kosmo and then crack up laughing.

Maybe he should mention that to Keith? Was he nuts? After the wake-up call they'd had that morning, how crazy did he have to be to be pining over babies? Or was it just that BABIES couldn't manage to get cocoa powder onto the CEILING?

He sighed, turning his attention back to the tray in front of him. His breakfast was Keith's go-to: scrambled eggs, bacon, toast with jam, coffee and oj. It wasn't fancy or gourmet, but it was tasty and filling, and Keith had even remembered to put the tabasco sauce, salt and pepper on the tray for him.

"Papi?" It was Thace, still covered in cocoa, although he looked like he'd been dusted off, at least. "Are you finished?"

"Not quite, bud, but almost," he said, his voice soft.

"Are you still upset?"

He shook his head, "no chiquito, I'm okay now."

Thace smiled at him, and Lance felt any lingering upset melt away. Most of the time, Thace looked like his family, with his dark skin and blue eyes and wavy brown hair, but there was this one smile… he hardly ever saw it… but it was 100% Keith's smile and thank God the kid couldn't seem to do it on command, because Lance was completely helpless to resist it. "We're sorry about the mess," Thace added, "but Daddy said that if you were almost done breakfast you might want our surprise?"

"Sure bud," he replied, "I'd love your surprise."

"Okay!" He turned away and Lance could hear him 'whispering' instructions to the others. They came into the room in a little cluster, Thace almost herding them to the couch.

"Daddy was gonna make Thace carry it, cuz its hot, but I proved I could do it," Rai said proudly, slowly holding out a mug.

"It's hot cocoa," Thace explained, "he taught me how to make it- the right way."

"I have marshmallows!" Talia chimed in, "cuz they're the bestest in cocoa!"

"CANADAY CANE!" yelled Kashi, holding out a mostly intact candy cane. There was a crack in the curve and it made the thing rattle inside its plastic wrapper as Kashi shook it excitedly.

"Awww… you guys…" He melted. He just… literally turned to goo. They were all so sweet and adorable and perfect- even if they still looked like coal miners. Carefully, he took the mug from Rai, setting it on the coffee table and then the marshmallows from Talia and the poor, broken candy cane from Kashi. "Thank-you."

They tripped all over each other to say 'you're welcome' first, and barring that, then the loudest. Talia was the first to add 'I love you, Papi', but the others were barely a breath behind her. Kashi was about to launch himself at him in a hug when Keith caught him by the back of his pj top. "Oh, no you don't! Papi JUST got out of the shower- you look like you chased Santa down the chimney. No hugs until after a bath. Come on, upstairs… let's get you lot presentable."

It was nearly an hour later, after Lance had finished the last of the breakfast, and the cocoa, and the candy cane, AND Kosmo had returned from where ever he'd blinked off to when the cocoa had started to fly, when Keith dropped down onto the couch beside Lance and pulled him up against his chest. Lance smiled up at him and pressed a kiss to his unshaven jaw.

"I love our kids," Keith sighed, "but sometimes… I think four might have been a mistake…"

"Mmm," Lance hummed, thinking about the disaster in the kitchen and the ruined pajamas and the fact that no matter how thorough Keith had been, he was going to be finding little streaks and dustings of cocoa over his floors and counters for MONTHS. "Yeah… you're right. Four was a mistake…" He smiled up at his husband, "we should have five."


	3. Chapter 3 Tumbleweed

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"Tumbleweed"**

 **Dec 3: Ice Skating**

It was their First Christmas (which was important enough to warrant capitalization!) since they started seeing each other and over the months they'd been 'officially' dating, Lance had discovered that Keith had been sorely lacking in romantic moments in his lifetime. There were some that everyone just HAD to experience, and Lance had made it his personal mission to make sure that Keith got to do every cheesy, sappy 'classic' date he could humanly manage.

In the time since they'd started actually dating (instead of just hooking up at random intervals) back in April, he'd enlisted the help of pretty much everyone he knew to cross some of the trickier 'special' dates off his list- like apple picking, and finding a state fair with a tunnel of love, and now- tracking down the most romantic spot to go ice skating. Well, technically the most romantic spot to go ice skating that ALSO rented ice skates… because he wasn't shelling out the money to BUY two pairs of ice skates for a single date.

Still, he was excited. So far, all of the 'special' dates have been… nice. Really nice. They haven't really been as perfect as he would like, but real life isn't a rom-com, despite his best efforts… Plus, Keith doesn't have as much of a romantic streak as he does. He's been holding out hope that that is mainly because Keith hasn't really had the chance or inclination to NURTURE a romantic streak and that one might… kind of… take root in that cynical heart of his.

It was a small hope… but a tenacious one.

And the special dates HAVE been good ones. They've had fun. They've gotten closer. Keith had stopped saying that Lance was making a 'big fuss for no reason'. In fact, the last 'classic' had been a walk through the park looking at the leaves and getting hot chocolate together and that had been AWESOME! They'd had a blast and when stopping to drink the chocolate and watch the early sunset had meant getting chilly, they'd snuggled up together and Keith had been so relaxed and happy that he hadn't even scowled when Lance had called him 'cute'.

This time, he'd actually let Lance blindfold him. Actually, the first miracle was that he'd agreed to let Lance DRIVE… then he'd agreed to the blindfold with hardly more than a sigh and an eyeroll. That was… kind of mind-blowing, actually.

"Do you have, like, hints for me to try to decipher?" Keith asked as Lance parked the car.

"Nope," Lance answered, smiling hugely, "and you can take the blindfold off now. We're here."

"Before I do- this isn't some kind of ambush is it? I'm not going to take this off and get hit with some weird version of 'this is your life' or anything?"

"What? No! But, that's an awesome idea! I am going to have to put that in the ol'memory bank," he laughed, leaning in to kiss his boyfriend softly, tugging the blindfold off, "it's just us. A real DATE- me and you and nobody else, see?"

"Are we…" he looked around, the spot was obscenely pretty. Snow covered the branches of tons of old-growth trees, sparkling and filtering the sun into little pockets of dancing light. There was a stream nearby, just big enough to keep from freezing over and close enough that they could hear it 'babbling' even in the car. There were a few wrought iron benches scattered among the trees, populated by people feeding the winter birds. At the end of the parking lot, sat a small bank of bleachers that looked to be made of halved logs, and a little building that was decorated like a gingerbread house and sported two signs: 'Rentals' and 'Returns'. "Are we at an outdoor rink? We're going skating?"

"We're going skating!" Lance repeated, with the proper level of excitement thankyouverymuch!

"Is this one of your whole 'I learned how to date from Hallmark movies' things?"

Lance rolled his eyes, "I don't watch HALLMARK movies!"

"This seems like a Hallmark movie thing," Keith said levelly.

"Since I don't watch Hallmark movies, I will have to defer to your CLEARLY more educated opinion," he teased, "since you've obviously watched enough of them to spot the supposed similarity from the parking lot."

"You're really not as funny as you think you are," Keith muttered, reaching for the door handle.

"No! It's a date, and I drove- so I have to get your door for you," he insisted, hopping out of the car. He could see Keith shaking his head as he rounded the vehicle and opened the passenger side door.

"You are ridiculous with this stuff," Keith said, but Lance could see the smile tugging at the corner of his lips. He hated to admit it, but Keith really loved it when Lance treated him like he was 'important or something' (because he WAS. Keith was very important to him!).

"I am a gentleman," he argued, slipping his hand into Keith's as they headed to the rental office, "you are just going to have to get used to that… and that means, I get the door when I drive. It means I walk you to your door at the end of the night…"

"Lance, you walk me to my door at the end of the night because you are SPENDING the night," Keith laughed.

"But even if I WASN'T, I'd still walk you to your door and say good-night and make sure you were safely inside before I left," he pointed out, "and maybe leave out the whole spending the night bit if my Mom ever asks if I am being a gentleman."

"We've been dating for MONTHS, Lance… you are the youngest of five kids- your mother is well aware that we are having sex."

Lance gasped, eyes wide with horror as he turned to Keith, "take that back! My Mom thinks I am an absolute angel! Pure as the driven snow! Nope. Nuh-uh. I refuse to accept that she even SUSPECTS anything else."

"What's… happening here? Is this you being in denial?" He asked, brow creasing with confusion, "or is this you being grossed out by the idea that your Mom knows you aren't a virgin?"

"Stop it!"

"C'mon Lance, be serious," he chuckled, "she's a grown woman, she knows how things work!"

"I'm not listening!" He dropped Keith's hand to clamp both of his over his ears, "lalalalalalalalalalala I can't hear you!"

"Lance! You are TWENTY years old!" He was on the verge of cracking up, "and your mom is always going on about how handsome you are and what a heartbreaker you were and how 'all the girls loved' you… be serious!"

"No! Shhh! Stop talking!" He gave up on the ineffective tactic of covering his ears, choosing the much more rewarding one of kissing Keith until they BOTH forgot what they were talking about.

Keith laughed into the kiss, which was something he'd only started doing recently and that Lance kind of loved. Because he thought it meant that Keith was relaxing with him a bit. Trusting him more. Sometimes, early on, it had felt like he was courting a porcupine or something- one wrong move would trigger a defensive response that could really hurt. Lately though… probably since… ohhh yeah, since Keith had dragged him camping on Labor Day Weekend… things had been… mellower. He'd been less guarded. More affectionate. So, lately, Lance could do this… kiss him and know that they'd be able to get lost in it for a bit- without losing track of where they were and who might see and start heading down a path that was very much not fit for public viewing.

"You are adorable," Keith said as the kiss broke, "Loverboy-Lance horrified to think that his Mami knows that he likes to fuck."

"Keith!" he squawked, head whipping around to make sure there were no kids in the vicinity. "Public!"

"I'm not a complete jackass, Lance," he chuckled, "I did CHECK for people nearby before I said that."

"Can we just talk about something else?" Lance sighed, "like.. ANYTHING else?"

"Okay, sure," he caught Lance's hand and squeezed it, "I didn't want to upset you. You know that right? I just… I think it's funny how much it means to you that she thinks you are… how did you phrase it? 'Pure as the driven snow'? It's sweet, though… really."

Lance huffed, but he rubbed his thumb over Keith's hand, "sometimes I forget… because you are one of like six people who knows what my life was like in space, who understands about being a Paladin and everything we went through… but THIS… I forget that you and I had very different lives before Voltron."

"It's okay Lance," he said, smiling at him, "I really like your family- your Mom, especially. I love how close you guys are. I just… it's so different from my relationship with my mother."

"Yeah, you and Krolia have kind of a unique relationship," he said, brushing his lips along Keith's jaw. "It's awesome, but…"

"Yeah," his smile was sad, "maybe if we hadn't been pulled apart by the war, I'd understand better."

"I love you," he said softly, "you know that, right?"

"I do," Keith answered, "and I love you, too… and weren't we supposed to be ice skating?"

Lance blinked, "oh my god… we need to get our skates!"

He laughed, "you completely forgot, didn't you?"

"You're distracting," he muttered. "Come on," Lance tugged on his hand, dragging him over to the counter.

It didn't take long to get situated with skates and before he knew it they were stepping out onto the ice. "So, is the rom-com date just the ice skating? Or is there like a flashmob waiting for some secret cue?" Keith asked, gliding backwards on the ice to make room for Lance.

"Just the skating," he chuckled, "no flash mob. I mean, I THOUGHT about a flash mob, but… I figured you'd dump me on the spot if I tried."

"I wouldn't dump you for something like that," Keith replied, laughing along with him, "I knew you were an overly dramatic romantic before I fell in love with you. Just like you knew I was a moody loner before you fell in love with me. You wouldn't dump me for acting like a moody loner, right?"

"Of course not," Lance smiled at him, stepping tentatively onto the ice and grabbing Keith's hand, "you're MY moody loner. I love you just the way you-" Suddenly, he was lying on his back, staring up into Keith's concerned face.

"Are you alright?" Keith asked, "did you hit your head?"

"Ummm.. yeah, I'm ok. The only thing hurt is my pride," he flashed a charming smile, sitting up.

"Rusty, huh?"

"I didn't THINK I was- I was rollerblading most of the summer."

Keith braced, holding his hand out to help Lance to his feet, only to have him fall again. "Rollerblading? Lance? How long has it been since you were ICE skating?"

Lance's smile was sheepish, "ummm… never? But blades are blades, right? It's all just skating."

"You have NEVER been ice skating?" Keith echoed, "darlin', why would you pick THIS as a date if you don't know how to skate?"

"I DO know how to skate! I roller blade all the time, I can even DANCE in old school roller skates!"

"Quiznak," Keith sighed, dropping into a surprisingly stable crouch, "this is a lot LIKE roller skating or rollerblading, but it's not the same. Being able to one doesn't mean you can do the other. You really never learned how to ice skate?"

"If I HAD, I'd be gliding gracefully around the rink with you, not sitting on my ass on the ice, Keith," he pointed out dryly. "I figured I'd be the one helping YOU- the guy from the desert!"

"Charities LOVE to spring for kids in the system to have big ice skating parties during the holidays," he explained "I used to go ice skating a few times a year when I was a foster kid. I can teach you, if you like?"

"You can?"

Keith shrugged one shoulder, "yeah. I've taught a bunch of kids over the years. It's not that hard… especially since you are used to rollerblades. Think of it like… um… learning a new weapon. Revolvers and sniper rifles are different in a lot of ways, but they are both GUNS right? The basic principles still apply. Aim. Breathe. Prepare for the kickback. Squeeze, don't pull the trigger. Etc."

Lance smiled, touched at the offer and at how Keith was trying to find a comparison to a skillset that Lance, specifically, was confident in. "I would LOVE it if you taught me how to skate," he answered.

"Alright, first step is to get you up on your feet again," Keith answered, "c'mon tumbleweed."

It took Lance about an hour to get the hang of staying upright and moving forward with enough confidence and grace that he no longer clung to Keith like a lifeline. Keith was notoriously hot-tempered, but he was an incredibly patient and supportive teacher. He never got frustrated or cranky, even those times when Lance pulled or knocked him to the ice when he'd fall.

They spent a surprising amount of time laughing, and even more time talking. Keith had quickly figured out that over-thinking was Lance's biggest downfall. If his mind was occupied with something else, he'd relax and let his body self-correct without stiffening up or jerking. If he was trying to concentrate on the skating, he seemed to completely bypass his own natural grace.

STOPPING on his own still seemed like an impossible dream, but Lance wasn't really complaining about the way Keith would catch him in his arms and slow them both down to a stop while he skated backwards. He also was definitely NOT complaining about the soft praise and encouraging little kisses Keith doled out once they did stop moving.

The little countdown buzzer they'd been given to track their rental time went off much sooner than Lance had expected and Keith gently guided him back to the little bank of bleachers by the rental office so they could change back into their regular boots.

"This was NOT how I was expecting this date to go," Lance laughed as they waited in line for the bizarrely small return window to give back the skates. "Did you have fun?"

"I always have fun on our dates," Keith answered, "I always have fun with YOU, Tumbleweed. Even when we aren't on a date."

"Aww… look at you being all sweet and borderline romantic. Here, hand me your skates, I'll pass them both in together." He let go of Keith's hand to collect the skates, handing both pairs over and signing the log book that tracked the rentals. He commented on them using old school pen and paper and how he thought it was cute. The teenager just nodded, a weird smile on her face. Even after all this time, he STILL wasn't used to the strange pseudo-celebrity status he had as a Paladin of Voltron. It just always felt WEIRD when someone recognized him, but he was raised to be polite so he just smiled at the kid and didn't mention the awkwardness.

"Alright," he said, stuffing his gloves into his pocket and turning back to Keith, "let's head back to the… what?" He looked around, like scanning the area would somehow change what he saw in front of him. Keith. On one knee. A ring box in his hand. "Oh my god… Keith!"

"Lance," Keith purred, his voice quiet and sure and steady, even though Lance could see in his eyes how nervous he was, "we've been dating for, like eight months, and I know a lot of people would think that wasn't very long… but you and I… we are so much more than those eight months. We've been through the worst stuff the universe could throw at us, watching each other's backs and working together. We got off to a bit of a rocky start, but it didn't take long for us to get past that. We are such a good team. You bring out the best in me. I like to think I bring out the best in you. I'm happiest with you. I… make SENSE when I'm with you. I hope I make you just as happy. I hope you want to give me the chance to do that for the rest of our lives. I have loved you for so long, even when you drive me crazy, even when you don't make sense to me. I was away from you for two years and it didn't lessen that love, like, at all. You SEE me. ALL of me… and you love me." He opened the ring box to reveal a very simple silver (white gold? Platinum? Some kind of alien metal? He couldn't tell the difference.) band with a tiny pearl flanked by two rubies inset in the metal. "Will you please be my husband?"

Lance had been crying since Keith had said his name the first time. Seeing that ring box had rendered him speechless, which was good, because it meant that he hadn't interrupted Keith's little speech. How had he ever thought that this man wasn't a romantic? Apparently, he just saved up the romance for the big moments.

"Lance?"

"What? Oh!" he shook himself out of his state of shock. "Oh my God! Yes! Of course, yes! Yes, I'll marry you! Oh my God! Keith!"

Keith stood, pulling Lance into his arms for a passionate kiss as the people around them erupted into cheers.

After a moment, Keith pulled back, taking the ring out of the box and slipping it on his finger, "the pearl because you love the ocean. One ruby for your birthday, because you being born changed my life. The other for Red… because we wouldn't be us without Voltron, and we've both been her paladin."

"Oh my God," he whispered again, awed, "it's perfect. You are perfect… perfect for me. The perfect boyfrie-I mean, the perfect fiance. I love you, Keith Kogane. So much. I can't wait to marry you!"


	4. Chapter 4 Surprise

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"Surprise"**

 **Dec 7: Sweaters**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

Why had they been soooo impatient for those first steps? Why had they thought that him learning to walk would be a GOOD thing? Not that he didn't want his son to learn to walk, but, even Kosmo was struggling to deal with the little speed demon- and Kosmo could TELEPORT!

Thace was 14 months old and had been walking for less than a week, and already he had advanced to sprinting at a near-Olympic level of speed. He'd been cruising around hanging on to furniture for a while, and before that he was crawling- so Keith had thought that their child-proofing was, you know, pretty much done.

Not true.

He wasn't exactly sure HOW, but Thace's ability to travel through areas without hand-holds somehow meant that he had something in his hand or mouth that he shouldn't have been able to reach at all times. It was… stressful.

His ass had BARELY touched the cushions of the couch when he heard that triumphantly glee-filled laugh that meant 'I found something COOL' from around the corner. He surged back to his feet and rushed to see what he'd gotten into this time. Thace took one look at him and stuffed his clenched fist into his opposite armpit, twisting away and wailing "noooooo!"

It took a minute but he was able to pry his surprisingly strong hand open to discover- a marble. HOW? There was absolutely NO REASON for there to be a marble anywhere in their quarters! Where did it come from? Were there more? Because if there were more, Thace WOULD find them and try to eat them. He tried to eat everything.

"Where'd you find this? Huh, buddy? Can you show, Daddy?"

Thace just scowled at him. He wasn't really sure what else he was expecting, honestly. He was only 14 months old, after all.

The front door slid open to reveal his husband, carrying a huge paper bag. "Uh-oh," Lance said as he shut the door, "someone doesn't look very happy."

"I took away his marble," Keith sighed. "So, I'm the worst right now."

"How did he get a MARBLE?!"

"That's what I want to know! How was Cuba?"

"Cuba was great," Lance answered, toeing out of his shoes and shrugging awkwardly out of his jacket while juggling the bag.

"I could take the bag, you know," Keith chuckled.

"But that would ruin the surprise!"

"PIES!" Thace clapped his hands excitedly.

"Yes, chiquito, a surprise for you," Lance scooped the toddler up one-handed and kissed his cheek with a loud popping noise, "oh man, Christmas is gonna be so much fun this year!"

"Christmas is always fun with your family, Lance," Keith pointed out.

"Yeah, but look how excited he is!"

"PIES! PIES! PIES!"

"Babe, you need to hurry up with that because he's about ten seconds away from all that excitement turning into a tantrum."

"Okay, okay… sit…" Lance dropped onto the couch and settled Thace beside him and Keith had to smile at how very alike they were as he joined them. The same nose, same high, delicate eyebrows, same coppery-gold skin, same heart-stopping smile. The only feature of his that he could spot in his son was the eyes. Thace had his wide, uptilted eyes and thick lashes, but even so, it was Lance's ocean blue color that peered up at him, not his purpley-grey. It probably shouldn't surprise him as much as it did- Lance and Rachel looked a lot alike, and most of the McClains had a strong resemblance to each other.

Lance pulled out a soft, floppy bundle wrapped in tissue paper and set it on Thace's lap. The baby was so overwhelmed with excitement that all he could do was scream as he tore into the paper, sending little shredded bits and pieces flying into the air. His husband had been right, Christmas was going to be so much fun this year- provided they could keep Thace from eating something horrifyingly dangerous, like any number of Christmas decorations.

"Whatcha got there?" Keith asked once Thace got through the paper and grabbed the colorful fabric it held. He flailed his little arm, squealing with delight as the 'pies' flapped around.

"PIES! PIES!"

"Clearly, it is a surprise, Daddy," Lance somehow managed to keep his voice completely deadpan while his expression was the very image of mischief. "Here, babe, this is for you," he handed Keith a bundle identical to Thace's but bigger.

Keith unwrapped the tissue paper and held up… a Christmas sweater.

It was black with thin red, blue and purple stripes above and below a row of white snowflakes that sat at roughly mid-chest.

"Ummmm?" He looked to Lance, hoping to get an explanation as to why he was being given a Christmas sweater, in November.

"My mother knit one for each of us," Lance said, "yours is black with red, blue and purple stripes. Mine is red with black, blue and purple stripes. Thace's is green with a snowman, but the cuffs on his sleeves are red, blue, black and purple. See? We match!"

"Okay… but WHY?!"

"Oh, yeah… she's pissed we didn't do a cheesy family holiday photo last year. She insisted she couldn't properly show off her grandson because we didn't do the cheesy family pic OR the Santa pic-"

"We TRIED to do the Santa pic!" Keith protested, "Thace was scared to death of Santa! He started crying when we got anywhere close to him!"

"I know, babe, I know… and I TOLD her that… but, this year we gotta do the picture of the three of us. Annnnd it needs to be done in time for her to put it in the family newsletter with the Christmas cards."

"Do we HAVE to wear the sweaters?"

"I wanna say no… but that would mean explaining to my mother why we didn't wear the hand-knit sweaters she made specifically for our Christmas pictures and I'm not willing to do that. Are you?"

Keith sighed. He hated Christmas sweaters, just, on principle… but he loved his mother-in-law. He really did. She was lovely and warm and kind and bursting with love. "I guess our only hope is that they don't fit?"

"Thace!" Lance clapped his hands, "wanna put on your surprise? Let's put it on!" He wrangled their son into the sweater despite the toddlers muffled protests when he couldn't see for all of two seconds. Keith followed suit, pulling the sweater on. The wool was actually really nice- soft and warm and not itchy at all. "Look chiquito! A SNOWMAN!"

"Mo-man!" Thace repeated sliding off the couch to kind of gallop around in a circle in celebration of his surprise. "Mo-man! Mo-man!"

"Okay," Keith sighed, "that's very cute. Look how happy he is! It's the tiniest bit big, so it might actually fit all the way to Christmas."

"You look pretty adorable, too," Lance purred, leaning over to press a kiss against the side of Keith's throat. "It's a good fit."

"I'm guessing she made you try yours on in front of her?"

"Yep- also a perfect fit." Lance pulled his own sweater on to demonstrate, and reluctantly, Keith had to admit that the shade of red she'd chosen looked REALLY good on Lance.

"Dammit. We are going to be the cheesy couple in matching Christmas sweaters in a newsletter."

Lance laughed, wrapping him in a hug, "how far you've fallen, Edge-Lord."

Keith let his head fall onto Lance's shoulder and smiled when Lance ended the hug but left his arm wrapped behind Keith's back sliding down to settle on his hip. They watched their son spin and prance happily around the room in his festive snowman sweater, being herded away from the exits by his space wolf. He snuggled close to his husband, the sweater already making him feel cozier- the knowledge that his mother-in-law had put so much thought and effort into MAKING him a sweater to wear instead of just buying one warming his heart just as surely as the wool warmed his body.

How far he'd fallen, indeed.

He'd fallen deeply in love with the man beside him.

He'd fallen right into the midst of the chaos that was the big boisterous extended McClain family with all their traditions and their huge hearts and open doors and easy affection.

And then fallen in love all over again with the little boy that was still chanting about his 'mo-man' sweater.

He'd fallen deep into domestic bliss.

He was STILL falling, a little further everyday.

The cheesy family picture with the matching sweaters and being part of the McClain family newsletter sounded pretty perfect, after all.

Falling was the scariest best thing he'd ever done.


	5. Chapter 5- Chickmas Pops

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **" Chickmas Pops"**

 **Dec 8: Home**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

The lights on the Christmas tree twinkled, casting oddly colored and ever-changing shadows into the two playpens that took up a good 90% of the remaining living room floor space- but the tree helped keep Talia and Rai entertained and distracted, so they all just had to deal with being crowded for the time being. Keith checked the thermometer and sighed. Almost 2 hours after treating the fever, the twins had temps of 102.3f and 101.8f. High, but less than the 103f that the pediatrician said warranted an after hours call.

Chicken pox.

Who even GOT chicken pox anymore? It had been virtually eradicated before Sendak showed up on Earth's doorstep and proceeded to seriously fuck up all the infrastructure for non-urgent medical care like manufacturing vaccines for rarely fatal childhood illnesses. So, the supply had run out, and over the last few years there had been a half dozen or so minor outbreaks in some of the more densely populated areas of Earth. They hadn't really put too much thought into it. Thace had always been a hardy, healthy kid that rarely got sick and then bounced back quickly. Honestly, they'd thought they wouldn't even have to worry about it while they were living on the Atlas.

Then they'd adopted the twins.

It had been kind of a whirlwind. They'd been approved and had the home inspection and all the preliminaries but hadn't yet been matched with a birth family and were still in the interview process when their worker had called in the middle of the night. There was a set of orphaned newborn twins needing immediate placement- were they interested? Lance had taken the call and relayed the message to him. No discussion had been needed, everything that needed to be said was contained in that split second of eye contact. Yes. Of course.

The worker had warned that the twins were weak, sick. She had no idea what kind of prognosis they were looking at. They were still undergoing tests. Results were expected within the hour. There could be lifelong health concerns. He'd been able to hear her for himself by then, thanks to how closely he'd crowded his husband when he'd passed over a pen and paper to jot down the details. Lance quirked one eyebrow at him and he knew that if he'd said they couldn't take that on, Lance would have ended the call. He also knew that Lance was well aware that hearing that these babies were going to be a 'hard placement' would cement his decision on the spot.

~Ask her where and when we get to meet our kids. Ask if they have names~ he'd scrawled on the paper. Lance had nodded and he'd grabbed his own phone to call Coran to stay with three year old Thace, and before they knew it, they were guzzling shitty hospital coffee and going over paperwork with their worker in a blandly decorated 'family room' across from the NICU. They'd gone to bed that night fathers of one, and by dawn, they'd have three kids.

They hadn't already had names, so he and Lance had quickly brainstormed and came up with two that they liked and meant something. Talia Rinn and Raimundo "Rai" Garrett Kogane- they'd gotten to watch the nurses write 'Talia' and 'Rai' on little cards that read 'Hi, my name is:' and slip them into little display windows on plastic isolettes. That had been the first time they'd seen them. Tiny. Thin. All arms and legs and ribs. IV tubes and oxygen cannulas and various sensors covering too much of their little bodies. They'd taken one peek at the frail looking babies who were kicking and screaming in outrage and fallen head over heels in love. Instantly, they were their children.

The twins spent nearly a month in NICU. The adoption had been finalized before they'd ever seen the outside of the hospital. Rai came home first, Talia a week later. They hadn't been given many details about the birth family, just that they'd been orphaned, the babies had been smaller than they should be, were sick with some kind of strep infection (medical stuff wasn't his strong suit) and that Talia had a genetic condition that could be managed with the right treatments, but not cured. They'd said there was no way of knowing at that point how it would present itself or how severely she'd be impacted over the years. They'd also said that the twins had underdeveloped immune systems.

That had meant sourcing human donor milk for them, and repeated hospital trips for check-ups, testing, and various treatments, plus having the pediatrician pretty much on-call for the first year or so. The twins had been thriving, so they'd started to relax about their health. They'd felt confident enough in their health that they'd started the process to have a fourth child.

Then, a kid in their preschool had picked up chicken pox somehow… and now… here he was, tending to two feverish, itchy three year olds and scared to death. Lance's family had offered to take Thace for the school holiday break, to limit his exposure to the germs and to make things a little easier on Keith and Lance, because sick twins took a LOT of parenting energy and attention. So, he'd been gone for almost a week, but he was going to be back at home on the ship for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with his parents and siblings. His poor, suffering siblings.

Sick on Christmas.

Keith's heart broke for them.

They were clearly miserable, and very vocal about how much they hated the mittens they had to wear to prevent them from scratching. It had taken him FOREVER to get them to sleep, even with the fever and medicine that had 'drowsiness' listed as a side effect. He should be sleeping, himself, but he was too worried about those fevers- checking their temps every 20 minutes out of fear that they'd climbed another degree.

He was still hovering when Lance got home, his sister Veronica in tow. "How are they doing?" he whispered, leaning over to kiss Keith's cheek.

"Itchy, cranky, and generally feeling awful," Keith answered, "and the fevers haven't broken yet."

"They'll break," Lance assured him, "the fevers will break, and the blisters will stop showing up, and they'll be back to their usual antics in no time."

"Have you eaten anything?" Veronica asked softly, rubbing at the small of her back. She was their surrogate this time around, just barely 2 months shy of her due date and still working full-time 'wrangling hotshot show-off pilots'. She was also the only other McClain sibling to reside on the Atlas, so she was around a lot. Not that he was complaining, he actually really enjoyed Veronica's company- even if it was STILL a head trip for him to think too much about the fact that she was carrying his child.

"Ummm… I finished whatever nuggets these guys didn't eat… and I had some coffee a while ago. Does that count?"

"Not even close," she sighed, "I can order up something from the officer's mess if you want?"

"That would be great," Lance said, taking the decision out of his hands. "Something that reheats well, in case they wake up again."

"Thanks, Roni." He smiled at his sister-in-law. The officer's mess didn't REALLY do deliveries, but few people were able to say no to Veronica McClain… and that number shrank significantly since she'd started showing. Almost no one was willing to risk the wrath of a pregnant Analyst McClain.

"That's what family's for," she said with a dismissive wave, already on the phone.

"How was the Christmas shopping?" he asked Lance.

"Productive," Lance grinned at him. "I found every last thing on the list."

"Sooo? We're done?"

"Our shopping is absolutely complete," he confirmed.

"That's awesome, babe, you are the best."

"That I am," Lance answered, flashing him double finger guns. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd seen Lance do that and it took him by such surprise that he cracked up.

"It's not home-cooking," Veronica said as she returned, "but they're sending up chili, cornbread, and salad for us, plus a pot of soup and some shortbread cookies for the little charmers- they've got half this ship wrapped around their little fingers. You know that, right?"

"Oh yeah, we are aware," Lance answered. "There's STILL half a bag of uneaten Halloween candy from taking them trick-or-treating through the residential sections."

"They are pretty darn adorable," Keith agreed, reaching out to brush sweat-slick hair out of Rai's eyes.

"Papi?" Talia's voice was weak, rough with sleep, "Papi! Up!" She pulled herself to standing reaching out her mitten-covered hands.

"Someone missed you," Veronica chuckled.

"Heyyyy precious girl," Lance cooed, lifting her out of the playpen. "How's Papi's little star doing, hmm?"

She scowled, "Imma princess, like'lura- not a star!"

"My mistake," Lance answered easily, "how is Papi's little princess doing?"

"Sick," she pouted, curling into Lance's chest and tucking her head up under his chin the way she did when she was an infant, "have Chickmas Pops."

Keith had to literally bite his tongue to keep from chuckling at how adorable Talia's mash up of Christmas and Chicken Pox was. Veronica didn't even bother.

"Awwww, that's the cutest! Lance couldn't say 'blankets' for the longest time. He used to say 'blam-kips'. It was adorable."

If there had been any doubt about Talia being sick, her lack of response to being called 'the cutest' would have laid it to rest. Ordinarily, she'd have responded to that by turning up the charm and chattering happily.

"I know, princess," Lance soothed, rubbing her back and kissing the top of her head, "I know you feel awful. You need to sleep, so you'll get better."

"NO!" she shrieked, somehow managing to scare herself- or maybe just hurt her head. Either way, her eyes went huge and she grabbed a fistful of Lance's shirt, stuffed her thumb into her mouth and curled even tighter to him, little whimpering noises escaping around her thumb.

She also managed to wake her brother. Rai started up that air-raid siren noise that signalled a full-on meltdown. Keith swept him up out of the playpen and into his arms as fast as he could manage trying to derail that whole nightmare before it got started. The sudden shift distracted him and he wrapped himself around his father like a koala bear, peeking over Keith's shoulder at Veronica and waving. "Baby ticking?"

"Sorry bud," she answered, "the baby isn't kicking right now. I think baby is sleeping." The last time Veronica had visited, she'd read him his bedtime story and he'd gotten to feel the baby kicking while he was curled up in her lap. He'd been pretty much obsessed with it ever since; telling basically everyone he encountered, 'the baby ticked me! Babies tick to say hi!'.

By the time the food arrived, Veronica and Lance were both trapped on the couch by sleeping toddlers, Rai's little had resting protectively on Veronica's baby bump. Keith answered the door and accepted the cart from the rather burly Garrison staff.

"I heard the little ones are sick," the guy- Keith thought his name might be Williams? Wilson? WilTON? Something like that, anyway- said, worry creasing his brow.

"Yeah. Chicken Pox," Keith answered.

"That's a shame. A real shame. Poor little things, sick at Christmas. We figured they must be sick. You usually come in on Tuesdays, all together with the Captain and the Ambassadors but you didn't this week. Was weird not to hear them laughing and singing." He stopped abruptly and cleared his throat, tugging his jacket back into place. "You just give us a call when you're done with the cart and we'll collect it. I hope the kiddos feel better soon. We added some jello and pudding to the cart- in case their throats are sore."

"That was… very thoughtful." Keith was touched, and more than a little surprised at the gesture. "Thank-you."

"You're welcome," the guy- WilMER?- said, clearly feeling awkward and wanting to explain his knowledge of the family's habits, "it's just… it's nice to see the families, you know? The kids, being just… kids? Makes this ship feel… different. Like… it's not just a warship. It's not just another posting. It's the families, like yours… that's what makes it better. The Atlas, it's a HOME- especially at Christmas- you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Keith glanced back, he could barely see the tops of Veronica and Lance's heads from this angle, but he could see the jumble of shoes that needed to be put away, and the couple of pen scribbles they hadn't yet scrubbed off the wall at roughly knee height, and Thace's backpack spilling out of the closet. He knew that Shiro's quarters were at the end of the hall, and Allura's were three doors down in the opposite direction and that the children had 'secret knocks' that gained them access to either quarters 24/7 that meant they'd often go 'adventuring' to the Princess' or the Captain's "realms" (he was pretty sure Coran had come up with that label). He could feel Black's presence, strong and comforting, and to a lesser extent, Red's, warm and fierce, in their docking bays a few levels below them- always on guard and at the ready.

It wasn't just the rooms on this side of the door, where they lived. It was the entirety of the massive, transforming testament to the alliance between Earth and the lost Alteans. It was the people who lived and worked here, bonded over shared losses and victories; who had started a school and preschool, and opened up little casual shops of hand-made supplies, or little luxuries they had a source for on Earth, and planned potlucks and holiday parties, and watered each other's plants when they were on mission or down on the surface. The whole ship was their HOME.

"Yeah," he repeated, "you're right. The Atlas- it's home."


	6. Chapter 6 Kogane Pride

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"Kogane Pride"**

 **Dec 9: Snowball Fight**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

"Alright, we're down, but there's no way we are out! We have a secret weapon," Lance's grin as his eyes lit on 14 year old Talia was positively evil, "Shiro has never been able to bring himself to do anything to make you unhappy and we are sooo gonna make him regret that."

She giggled, eyes glinting mischievously, "what do you need me to do?"

"Can you still cry on cue?" he asked.

"Please," she shot him a look, dislodging the dark hair that fell into her eyes with a huff of breath, "I have FOUR brothers. I will ALWAYS be able to do that."

"That's my girl," Lance gave her a fist bump. "Kashi!" Status update?"

"They've still got Shiro guarding Dad and Rai. Matt's hiding behind the deadfall with Shay. Pidge is up in the trees, though, at… ummm…" the eleven year old held his two hands, palm to palm, in front of him, and keeping the heels together, pivoted the right in jerks, simulating the arms of a clock. "About 2 o'clock… She's got a good line of sight so be careful about getting sniped. I can't see Hunk or Jacob."

"And they said those infrared binoculars were a waste of money," Lance snorted, "excellent intel kiddo."

"We've sooo got this, Papi," assured Lucas, giving him a thumbs up.

"Status update at the jail?" he asked, and Lucas' dark fingers flew over his phone, sending out a text.

"Thace says the Alteans are secure," the 10 year old reported a few moments later, "so, as long as he's not lying so he can make-out with his girrrrrrlfriend, we should be good."

"Hey!" Lance said, face stern, "first of all, don't mock your brother's relationship because he WILL get revenge when you start dating. Second of all, Thace would never jeopardize our winning streak- not even for make-outs with his girlfriend! Kogane Pride- guys! C'mon here!"

"Kogane Pride!" they echoed.

"Damn right! Now- here's the plan…" They huddled and he laid out his plan using little diagrams traced in the snow.

About five years ago, shortly after they'd adopted their fifth kid, adding then five year old Lucas to their family, Keith had figured out that getting captured during their annual snowball war meant getting to hang out on an inflatable hammock-thing and watch his husband shine. No one took this as seriously as Lance, although Pidge and Matt weren't TOO far behind him.

Shiro certainly didn't- which is how he always ended up on jailer duty. Not that Keith minded, it was kind of nice to hang out with his brother (and often his son Rai, who seemed to have a similar strategy about how to handle the whole event to Keith).

"So," Shiro said idly, "how would you handle this if you were him?"

"Hmmm… I think I'd get Thace to scout ahead and try to take Pidge out of the trees- kid's got an arm on him, that's for sure. Then, I'd get Kashi and Lucas to rush Matt and Shay- they are small targets and FAST- while Talia and I tag-teamed the capture and handling Hunk and Joshua. I'd leave Juanita on guard duty- she's still trying to impress the boyfriend's family and would be ruthless. You?"

"I wouldn't even worry about Pidge," Shiro answered easily, "I'd stick to the boundaries- out of her reach. Talia and Thace through the brush in the east. Juanita and Kashi over that rocky path in the west. Try to flank and have one of the smaller kids that got through go for the flag. I'd stay on guard duty, because Coran ALWAYS tries to make a run for it. Lucas would be the decoy."

"Papi won't do either of those things," Rai said with certainty.

"You don't think?" Keith asked, curious about his son's reasoning.

Rai shook his head, "nah- too… uh… not predictable, but like umm.. Classic? I guess? Too much like a military approach. You know what he always says about this thing."

"You mean: I swear to all that is holy, Mullet, if you make us break the winning streak I'm divorcing you?" Keith joked.

"No," Rai answered, deadpan, "snowball war is all about guerilla tactics."

"He threatens to divorce you over the snowball war?" Shiro laughed.

"He threatens to divorce me at least five times a day," laughed Keith, "yesterday he threatened to divorce me because I wanted chinese take-out instead of leftovers from dinner with his folks."

"And then again because you forgot to pick up the streamers for Lucas' birthday party," Rai added helpfully.

"Yeah, that too. Keep in mind, Lucas' birthday party is in a MONTH. Streamers weren't exactly urgent."

Shiro shook his head, "some things never change, huh?"

Keith just smiled, "Lance is always going to be Lance, if that's what you mean."

"Kind of, yeah. So, Rai- what would your tactic be?"

"I'd secure them, but leave the prisoners undefended, because you guys would assume that I'd have someone watching them. Then I would have Talia, Thace, and Papi… or, me I guess, if we are assuming that I was in charge and he was a prisoner… rush the field with a stockpile of balls- real loud and attracting a ton of attention. I'd get Kashi and Lucas to do a purposely bad 'sneak attack' on the west flank. Then I'd have Juanita come through the east in the cover, slow and quiet and take you out from a distance. Free the prisoners, and then have her yoink the flag while the prisoners kept you guys busy."

"That's… bold," Shiro said, half-nodding as he played the scenario through in his head.

"Risky," pointed out Keith, "without someone on the jail, the Alteans are an unknown. Anything could happen."

"Yeah, but it's a snowball fight and I don't care if I win as much as Papi does, so I wouldn't mind rolling the dice and counting on the misdirect and element of surprise." He kicked half-heartedly at the ground and it struck Keith that this might actually be the last year that the snowball war had one entire team made up of his family. The kids were getting bigger, and while Thace was every bit as competitive and rough and tumble as the McClain clan, and would likely be an avid participant well into adulthood, and Talia thrived on the strategy and social aspects of the yearly tradition, Rai was neither especially competitive, nor overly social. It wasn't outside the realms of possibility that next year, he might want to bow out… and if he did, neither Keith nor Lance would press him to take part, they'd just adjust, just like they adjusted as their family had grown over the years.

Reminded of just how grown up his kids were getting- the twins were the same age as Pidge, and Thace the same age as Hunk and Lance had been when they'd become Paladins- Keith slung an arm over his son's shoulders and gave him a squeeze. "Love you, kiddo. Very valid arguments… and your plan is solid. It's daring, sure, but I'd say it's just as likely to work as anything Shiro and I came up with."

"Really?" Rai's eyes lit up and he barely managed to hide his proud smile, because 14 year olds weren't supposed to let on that their parents' opinions mattered to them.

"Yeah," Shiro chimed in, "it's a damn sight better than anything he would have come up with at your age."

"Hey, now!" Keith protested, giving Shiro a shove, "ignore him, Rai. I was sneaky... sneakier than he realizes. He busted me like… less than half the time I did something I shouldn't have."

"What's this now?" Shiro turned on him, breaking out his rusty old 'Space Dad Face' to scowl at Keith.

"Shit!" The yelp sounded pained, its source definitely female. "Oww… fuck… he's gonna kill me…"

Keith's eyes flicked towards the sound, his brow furrowing. Rai and Shiro both sat up a little straighter, Rai staring straight ahead while Shiro looked around.

"Was that Pidge?" Rai asked, eyes lifting to scan the trees.

"Didn't sound like Pidge," Keith answered, "although, given the language, I really hope it isn't your sister. Maybe we need a swear jar…"

"You gave up on the swear jar last time because Papi tried to avoid it by only cursing in Spanish and then Kashi decided to repeat one of his rants to Abuela."

"Yeah- that was BAD." Keith cringed, "I've never seen her so mad."

"Shhh," Shiro hushed them, "listen… I think I hear crying…"

"Talia?" He moved to stand then caught himself at the last second. Technically, he and Rai were 'prisoners'. They weren't restrained in any way, but that was just because Shiro knew neither of them would exploit the rules and make a break for it like SOME people *cough, cough* Coran *cough, cough*.

"I'll check," Shiro said, patting Keith's knee and standing. "I know you won't take off."

"That would be cheating, and as Lance always says, we don't need to cheat to win."

Rai rolled his eyes, "that makes it sound like he totally WOULD cheat if it was the only way he could win."

"Yeahhhh, let's maybe not point that out to your Papi, okay?" Keith chuckled.

Shiro headed toward the noise just as Pidge let out a banshee shriek and the air filled with the soft thuds of snowballs hitting trees and the ground. "Dammit! Little imps are JUST out of range!" Hunk and Lucas popped up from their hiding spots and starting rushing the field, snowballs flying.

Squeals and threats bounced off the trees. It was familiar, this pattern. The snowball wars always started with some good natured volleys, then a burst of activity until each side had a captive or two and retreated behind the fort walls to regroup and strategize. Then a long stretch of little to no activity before one side or the other took the initiative and sent either a feint, or a true advance. They'd been doing this for 22 years now. Every year, the day before New Year's Eve they had their snowball war, followed by a big potluck dinner. The location changed from year to year- sometimes they weren't even on Earth.

"AAAAAAAIIIIIE! It went down the back of my NECK!" squealed Kashi and Keith and Rai grinned at each other.

Keith started counting. Before he even got to ten he felt arms slip around his waist.

"Miss me?" Lance whispered, tugging Keith backwards into his arms and kissing him quickly. "Your knight in shining armor to the rescue- as usual."

"Gross," muttered Rai.

"Sorry bud," Lance chuckled softly, "we've been like this for decades, it's not changing anytime soon. Now, squish in here- selfie time. Gotta have proof that the jailbreak is above board." Rai rolled his eyes, but did as he was told and Lance snapped a pic of the three of them. "Right! Now we ALL duck behind the flagpole. I'll grab the flag and you guys split up, act like you're hiding it and book it. Whoever goes west- veer toward the center entrance to the fort to draw their attention when you hit the second row of blinds, got it?"

They gave him a thumbs up and picked their way through the trees as quietly as they could. Once Lance had grabbed the flag and tucked it into his fist, Keith gave him a quick kiss and he and Rai made a break for it. He ended up being the one on the west. It had less cover, but you could move a lot faster. So, he broke through the cover of the trees first, sending Matt and Shay into action. Shay wasn't the fastest at pitching snowballs, but she had decent aim and when the snowball hit you (which it almost always did) you FELT it. Keith had been left with bruises from one of Shay's hits in the past. Gentle she might be, but she didn't shy away from giving each pitch her all.

He hugged his left arm close to his chest, like he was cradling the flag. He heard screams and shouts behind him as Matt got the attention of the others and they gave up on keeping Kashi at bay. Talia's voice cheering him on made him smile, even though he was sure Shiro was fuming at being duped by 'his favorite girl'- Talia had held a soft place in his heart since before she'd even come home from the hospital, because he knew what it was like to grow up with a genetic disorder diagnosis hanging over you.

He nearly went down when one of Shay's throws hit the back of his knee, but managed to recover, even if it meant he stumbled for a few steps, losing some of his lead. About ten feet before he was ready to cross over the field, Hunk and Shay's son Jacob spotted Rai and let out a scream that Keith was sure could be heard back at the Chalet where Romelle and the other family and friends that were NOT inclined to take part in the war (or in the case of Krolia, sat out this year to make room for Thace's girlfriend to participate) were heating up the food and waiting with mulled apple juice for the kids and more substantial 'defrosters' for the adults. "Keith's a DECOY! It's RAI! RAI HAS THE FLAG!"

Keith knew that Matt was too suspicious by nature to give up his pursuit, but he was moving out of his reach, so Matt's only course of action was to give chase while Shay headed over to the opposite side to try to stop Rai. Keith cut into the field, aiming to dive behind the first row of low snow walls that Lance insisted on calling 'blinds'. He heard Matt curse and there was a short break in the pelting as he got moving, dragging a plastic kid's sled loaded with snowballs behind him. Ammo portability was always an issue with the snowball war and there had been any number of tactics used over the years, but this was Matt's favorite and go-to solution.

The low walls were only about two feet tall, which wasn't a whole lot of cover, but meant that to hit someone crawling or hiding behind them you had to choose between a high underhand toss that would drop onto them, or getting close enough that the angle of the overhead throw would clear the wall and still hit the body behind it. Matt ran, clearly going for the latter option.

Rai was managing to keep just ahead of snowball range of his pursuers. His long legs letting him hop over obstacles pretty easily and his narrow frame and lack of ammo allowing him to weave through the trees. Keith could see the huge grin on his face even from this distance- maybe they had a few more years of Rai on the team, after all- as he belly-crawled behind the walls.

It was Rai's face, and the way his grin shifted to a proper SMIRK that told Keith that Lance was on the move. He 'accidentally' popped up just enough for Matt to spot his location and a few seconds later one of those slow, high underhanded tosses dropped right onto his head. Eventually, he would learn to wear an actual hat instead of just ear-muffs to this thing, but that day wasn't this day and instead he just shook the snow out of his hair and accepted that he'd have that weird creepy-crawly feeling of melting snow making its way down his scalp until they got inside.

He was almost to the center entrance of the fort when someone finally spotted Lance and realized what had happened. It was Pidge- still stuck up in her perch in the tree- and the string of profanity that she let loose could blister a sailor's ear. Time seemed to slow down as everyone turned their attention to his husband, whose long legs were eating up the distance between him and victory with stunning speed.

"Go! Papi! GO!" screamed Rai, letting out his own version of that rooster-crow-howl-hybrid that Lance did in his Lion sometimes. The other team turned, trying to get to Lance, but it was too late.

They knew it was too late.

They tried anyway.

Matt dropped his sled of ammo and just ran at Lance, and was actually gaining on him. Lance was starting to look worried, and he pushed himself, surging forward on a burst of speed that Keith suspected he was going to regret later. Knees weren't nearly as forgiving in your forties as they were in your twenties, and Lance had done a lot of running and fighting since knocking on Blue's particle barrier all those years ago. Matt changed his angle slightly to account for the sudden sprint.

Quiznak! Matt... might actually catch him!

Everyone else seemed to just stop. It was pretty clear that the win would come down to whether Matt managed to get the flag from Lance before Lance got behind the wall of their fort. Out of nowhere there was a battle cry.

"Kogane Pride!" squealed Juanita, who appeared suddenly from behind the seven foot wall to start PELTING Matt with snowballs, one after another, with a speed and accuracy that floored Keith. "MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE MR. MCCLAIN! YOU GOT THIS!"

Keith had liked Thace's girlfriend from the first time he'd met her. Bright, kind, friendly, but kind of quiet- she'd seemed like a good balance to Thace's high energy and nervous chatter. It was only now, seeing Matt falter in his steps from the steady stream of snowballs hitting his shoulders and arms, that Keith remembered that she pitched for the school's baseball team.

Lance disappeared into the fort and everyone went nuts screaming and cheering- some out of happiness, others out of frustration, but it was all good-natured. Keith hopped up and ducked through the central entrance to see Juanita sitting on Thace's shoulders, his arms wrapped around her calves. She mussed his hair and he grinned up at her, and damn that kid was sooooo gone on her. Keith could see it in his son's blue eyes that were so like Lance's, and in the besotted smile the grin faded into that was too much like his own face in any pictures where he happened to be looking at Lance.

"Well done! Once again," Coran clapped a hand on his shoulder, "your family is a formidable opponent."

Keith's eyes caught Lance's as he waved the flag above his head and high-fived Lucas. Lance winked at him and for a split second he didn't see the grey in his hair, or the laugh lines, or the little scar on his temple- he saw the kid that so wanted to win that he flew his Lion right into the surface of a planet. He saw the guy who pulled himself out of unconsciousness and fired off ONE shot that saved them all. He saw the brash, brave, fun-loving, soft-hearted, flirty BLUE Paladin he'd fallen in love with-despite his best efforts not to.

"Yeah," he said to Coran, "we make a good team."


	7. Chapter 7 Little Star

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"Little Star"**

 **Dec 11: Stars**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

 **cw: discussion of serious childhood illness, its impacts on family, and hospitalization**

Once upon a time, being among the stars was all Lance wanted. He would lie on the beach, or climb up onto the roof of the garage, or on the rare occasion, manage to convince one of his older siblings to drive him out of town, away from the light pollution after the sun had set to lie on the hood. He'd stretch out on his back, even when the ground was lumpy, or the tiles of the roof were uncomfortably hot from a day's worth of Cuban sun, or his sibling would be smoking cigarettes (that they were DEFINITELY not allowed to be smoking, but if he ratted them out they'd never do this favor for him again so he kept his mouth shut) and stinking up the air, and he'd watch the stars wink into being. They'd appear slowly at first, only the closest and the brightest showing up in the blue velvet sky, but as that blue deepened to that purpley-black he loved so much, they started popping into being like bubbles fizzing on the surface of his cola. He would stare up into the night sky and softly recite the names of the planets and stars and constellations he had learned- each one a promise to himself that someday, somehow, he would go to SPACE and he'd be surrounded by them. He loved the idea that he'd be among the stars and looking down on Earth and some other kid would be staring up- maybe right where he was- and dreaming about the same thing.

Space was the ultimate romantic adventure.

By the time he was eighteen, space had very much lost its magic for him. He still loved the stars, but he loved them the way he loved the view from his favorite hiking trail, or the way the sun set in the desert. It was pretty, and majestic, and awe-inspiring… but it wasn't magic anymore. Maybe if he'd made it into the stars the way he thought he would, it would have kept that fairytale appeal. Maybe not. Either way, being thrust into an intergalactic war with no warning, virtually no support system, and no reprieve had done a very good job of sanding the shine right off that childhood fantasy.

Not that the stars hadn't been good to him. It was where he'd fallen in love with his husband, after all. And, it was where he'd gotten to know his childhood hero well enough to call him a friend and later, family. It was where he'd forged the strongest friendships he'd ever seen anyone have. Without being thrust into the role of Paladin of Voltron, he'd never have met Allura, or Coran, or Matt, or Romelle. He'd never have truly understood the terrifying and amazing depths of his classmate Pidge. He'd never have fully appreciated how brave and resilient and remarkable his 'best bud' Hunk was. Keith would never have found his mother, never had made peace with his history, and probably would never have been ready to forge a real relationship, let alone strap in for marriage and a passel of kids.

He'd never have known the special bond between a Paladin and their Lion. First Blue. Then Red. He felt the little purr from his Lion that let him know that their bond was appreciated on that end, as well, and he smiled.

So, space had been kind of a mixed bag- awesome highs… but too many tragedies and betrayals and narrow escapes from near-certain death to be the favorite escape he'd thought it would be.

One definite perk, though, was that the medical technology of many of their allies was leaps and bounds beyond anything Earth had come up with… and since his little girl had a genetic disorder, that perk was probably his personal favorite- even if it meant that he and Talia might not make it home from Olkarion in time for Santa's arrival this year.

"Is it time?" Talia's sleepy voice startled him out of his reverie and he pulled the six year old into his lap.

"Not quite time yet," he answered, snuggling her against his chest. "But soon. How are you feeling?"

"Tired," she murmured, "and this thing is itchy..." She rubbed at the little disk tucked behind her ear and pouted.

"I know baby, but the doctors said not to pick at it and when it is done its job it will fall right off. Remember? It's really important."

She sighed, "I know… it's trying to hack my code and make a patch so my heart doesn't glitch."

Lance smiled, of all the many, many explanations she'd gotten of her health issues, of course the one that would make sense to her would be Pidge comparing her to a video game. "Exactly, and if it works, it will fall off all on its own in a couple of weeks." Please work, he prayed silently, please, please, please work. Even if the only thing it did was fix the worries about her heart. Just… please.

"And if it doesn't we get to go on another trip in Red," she smiled up at him, but it didn't reach her eyes. Little sweetheart, trying to cheer him up and soothe his worries when she was the one who had to live with this shit.

"And Papi gets to have more time with his little star all to himself," he kissed the top of her head and watched her eyes crinkle as her smile grew.

"I really like Olkarion," she said after a moment. "Maybe when I get big, I can go to school there?"

"Maybe," he agreed easily, "there are very good schools on Olkarion."

"And good hospitals, right?"

"Yes, princess… they have the very best hospitals. That's why we take you there."

"Yeah," she nodded, solemnly. It wasn't often that she got quiet and serious like this, but he didn't want to discourage it. He didn't want her to think they expected her to be happy and bubbly and optimistic all the time. "So… maybe they can teach me to be… like, a doctor… for kids like me."

"I think that's a great idea, Talia. I bet you'd be a great doctor."

"Yeah?" She chewed her lip, "you think I'm smart enough? The Olkari are super smart. Smart like Tia Pidge."

"I think you are plenty smart," he answered, ruffling her hair, "you understand more of the stuff Tia Pidge says than I do!"

"Papi!" she rolled her eyes, "that's cuz you don't LISTEN when Tia Pidge talks!"

"I don't LISTEN when Tia Pidge talks," he countered, in a playful, exaggeratedly exasperated voice, tapping her on the nose, "because I don't UNDERSTAND what Tia Pidge is saying!"

That made her laugh and he could feel her relax a little more with every chuckle. They should have been home by now. They were supposed to be home by now, but there had been complications and she'd needed to stay two extra days. So now, they were galaxies away from home on Christmas Eve and TENTH in line for the teleduv. Opening a wormhole was draining and Allura was still the only one who could do it, so depending on what was ahead of them, it could be anywhere from an hour to a day before it was their turn- longer if there were any emergencies that jumped the queue.

Keith had already promised her, AND made all three of her brothers promise her that the stockings and gifts would stay untouched until they were all home, together… but that was cold comfort to a six year old. Cold comfort for a thirty-something Cuban who was missing Noche Buena with his family at this very moment and who could practically TASTE the roast pork his mother always made. But if there was even a CHANCE that this bio-hack idea would work to fix even SOME of Talia's damaged genes, it would be worth it. It would be worth ANYTHING.

The comms lit up and Talia squealed, pointing at the blinking light. "It's THEM! Answer, Papi! Answer!"

Chuckling, he did as she asked, a holoscreen appearing in front of them. Thace was far too close to the transmitter, clearly fiddling with the settings. "I don't know why I have to be the one to do this," he muttered, "it's Lion tech… he's been dealing with Lion tech forever…"

"Stop complaining about your Dad," Lance scolded, scaring his eldest so badly that he squawked and jumped, "he knows how to do it, he wants to make sure YOU know, too."

"Sorry, Papi," Thace grumbled.

"It's not me that deserves the apology," Lance pointed out.

"Shhh- not NOW," Talia insisted shifting in his lap, "HI THACE!"

The nine year old wasn't generally a big fan of his kid sister in normal day to day life- but today wasn't a normal day. Today was Christmas Eve, and Talia had just spent close to a week in the hospital. They fought and he didn't LIKE her much, but he still LOVED her… and that was clear in the way his face softened and his eyes lit up at the sight of her face. "Hey brat! Enjoying your vacation?"

"S'not a vacation," she scowled.

"Did you have to go to school?"

"No…"

"Then its a vacation," he insisted- with all the wisdom his nine years had granted him.

"We can argue about whether it is a vacation when we get home," Lance pointed out, "we have some stuff that needs to be done- where is everyone else?"

"Here!" Keith's voice carried over the line, "we're here! We just…" He appeared on the screen, Kashi in his arms and looking very put out, and Rai trailing behind. "Sorry- there was and incident with milk and then a slip and- you know what? Not important. All taken care of now and I'd rather give you the whole story in person. So! Is everyone who can't get into a bar in their pjs?"

There was a loud chorus of yesses and Keith made a big deal of making all of the kids 'prove' it to him- even though he was the one that had hounded three of them into changing for bed in the first place. Once that was done they put together the snack for Santa- Talia got to boss her brothers around about the arrangement of the cookies on the plate and the plate, note, and glass of milk on the tray, because she wasn't there to actually add anything to the tray.

Storytime with Daddy followed that, with Keith reading out "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and the kids chiming in with favorite lines and the same jokes they made every year. Then the kids hung their stockings with Talia directing Keith, who was pretending to be absolutely terrible at following directions and had Talia shrieking with frustrated laughter at his absolute inability to figure out how to put the loop of her stocking over the hook on the little snowman statue with her name on it. Lance could barely keep a straight face. It wasn't often that Keith got flat out silly with the children, but when he did it was always a big hit- and so damn endearing that it made Lance's heart do little flip-flops.

"He's doing this on purpose!" Talia complained to him.

He shook his head, "oh no- he's not. He's TERRIBLE at following orders! That's why I ended up in Red and he got moved to Black! He's much better at being bossy!"

"Thanks, babe," Keith said drily. "I love you, too."

"Awww, I know you do, sweetums!" He teased, "who could resist Loverboy Lance?" He grinned, giving his husband some classic finger gun action and making all of the kids dramatically groan and roll their eyes. One of them even managed a very teenager-sounding 'ewww gross!'

Parenting. Done. Right.

"Whazza' loverboy?" Kashi asked and Keith turned to the transmitter, arms crossed over his chest and a smug smirk on his face.

"Excellent question, Kashi. Papi's going to explain that to you RIGHT NOW."

So, a challenge. Fine. He could handle that. "Loverboy Lance is what they called Papi when he was on tv with the Voltron Show forever and ever ago… because everyone wanted me to be their boyfriend. A loverboy is someone everyone wants to have as a boyfriend." Bam. Easy peasy.

"Whazza' boyfriend?" Kashi asked.

"A boyfriend is a boy you act all all gross and mushy with," Rai explained. Ahhh- that's who channeled their inner teen. "Like when Daddy and Papi get all kissy-faced and then LIE and say it's naptime. EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE TOO OLD FOR NAPS!"

Man, it had been far too long since he'd seen Keith blush like that. He hadn't realized how much he missed it. It was downright adorable. "We're old," Lance replied, "old people like naps."

"Nooooo," Rai argued, "old people take naps by falling asleep on the couch. You guys just LIE- we know you're awake in there! We can HEAR YOU!"

"ANYWAY!" Keith interjected pulling Rai back into his seat. His face was so red! Lance nearly cooed- how precious was that?! "It's getting late and Santa won't stop at our quarters if any of the kids are awake, so it time for Papi to sing and then I'll tuck you three into bed. Talia gets to have a slumber party on Red Lion." He smiled at Talia, "but don't stay up too late, tomorrow is a big day!"

"Hey!" Thace poked his head in front of Keith, crowding close to the screen, "Tally! Can we see the THING? The alien thing…"

"S'not a THING," she grumbled, "it's a bioadaptive genetic read/write interface… that's right, isn't it, Papi?"

"That's it exactly, little star. You nailed it."

"Fine!" Thace rolled his eyes, "can we see the bioadaptive thingie?"

"Ummm… okay," she shifted in Lance's lap, turning her head and pulling her dark hair up and out of the way.

"All I can see is your ear," Rai pouted.

"Here, let me help," Lance very gently folded her ear forward so she could show off her new tech. She didn't find it nearly as cool as the boys did, but their enthusiasm buoyed her mood considerably.

"Ok guys- we are going to hit out transmission limit soon," Lance interjected. "If you want me to sing, it's gotta be now."

They settled down, Kashi in Keith's lap, Rai tucked up under on of his arms and Thace sprawled on the floor in front of them. His boys. Talia cuddled into his chest and pulled his arm around her, threading her fingers with his and resting her face on their joined hands. His girl.

He sang them the song he always sang on Christmas Eve. It wasn't really a lullaby or even a Christmas carol. It was an old protest song from WWIII that was about how Cubans secretly and silently celebrated Christmas for 30 years while they were oppressed. It was meant to encourage hope and quiet resistance against oppression, but he loved it because it was a pretty song and it was about his home and its history and the bravery and resilience of Cubans. A few years back, Keith had pointed out that many of its messages could be applied to the war THEY'D fought against the Galra and yeah… maybe that was part of why that song spoke to him so much… but either way, he wanted his kids to know that history and carry that pride in their heritage.

Kashi was asleep by the end of the song, and Rai was visibly nodding off.

"Night night guys," he said softly, "love you… miss you… see you soon."

"G'nighhhh…" Talia trailed off into a yawn and waved at the screen.

"Night!" Thace blew a kiss and shuffled out of the frame.

"Love you, Tally," murmured Rai.

"Alright, I need to get the boys to bed. Talia, sweetheart, Daddy missed you bunches and I'm gonna squeeze you so tight tomorrow that you're gonna be taller when I stop." She gave a little giggle, already sounding more alert. "I love you, little star."

"Love you, too, Daddy."

"Lance, I arranged that thing, so it's a go… and I'll call you again in like, an hour or so once I get these guys down for the night."

"Perfect," Lance smiled at him, "I knew I could count on you. Love you Mr. Kogane."

Keith smiled at the old joke from their newlywed days, "love you, too, Mr. Kogane."

The video feed blinked out and Lance dropped a kiss on Talia's forehead. "Does that make you feel a little better, little star?"

"A bit," she said, "can't believe I'm gonna miss Santa…"

"You aren't going to miss him, you're going to be asleep when he shows up. If we were at home, you'd be asleep when he showed up. Besides, we might be home by morning! Once Allura opens the wormhole we are just a few minutes away from the Atlas."

"I guess," she sighed.

Time for the thing that Keith had arranged. He stood, carrying her to her little bunk and tucking her in. "Okay- this is a special treat. So, you get a ONE TIME exception to the no screens in bed rule. ONE time." He pulled a tablet out of his duffel bag, "uncle Shiro is waiting for your call."

Her whole face lit up, "really?"

"Really. I know that it is hard for you to get pulled around to all these appointments. Your Daddy and I and our whole family love you, and want you to be happy… but we don't know what it is like to be YOU. Uncle Shiro, he understands better what it feels like to be the one that has to stay in the hospital and get poked at by specialists… and you just had a tough hospital stay- so I thought you might want to talk to him."

She hugged him tight, and he heard a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sniffle. "Love you, little star."

"Love you, too…" she whispered, "how come you guys call me that? Little star?"

He smiled, "because it's your name… Rinn means star."

"Ohhhhhhhhh… okay, and I'm little… I get it now. Can I really call Uncle Shiro?"

"Yes, you really, really can… and I'm going to go all the way back up to the cockpit, so you can even talk about how annoying and embarrassing I am and I won't. Even. know."

"Papi," she giggled, "you already know!"

He laughed, he loved that his kids felt safe enough to tease them, and ruffled her hair again. "Love you," he whispered, kissing the top of her head again.

He heard Shiro's voice before he was even ten feet from the door, and he offered up a little prayer of thanks that Talia had someone close to her that understood what she was facing.

So, once upon a time, being among the stars was all Lance had wanted. The reality hadn't been nearly as magical as he'd thought it would be… but there was definitely magic in space. He'd seen it. He'd FELT it, been a part of it. The stars didn't hold his heart the way they used to… but sitting in Red's cockpit, staring out at constellations that were not the ones he'd grown up learning, he felt that little glimmer of hope in his chest.

He didn't need the magic space held anymore, he didn't love all the stars the way he once did. But if they could find the RIGHT bit of magic up here in space, there was this one little star that held his heart in her fragile little hands and really really could use some magic… hopefully, it was the magic that brought down Blue's particle barrier all those years ago and led him to meeting the Olkari, and falling in love with a purple-eyed boy with alien dna, and starting a family, and needing medical tech that Earth didn't have, but the Olkari did and maybe… just maybe that same magic would mean that the tech would work on Talia's very human genes.

Because the universe was so much better with that bright little star shining in it.


	8. Chapter 8- Time Flies

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"Time Flies"**

 **Dec 15: Traditions**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

"What do you mean you won't be there?" Lance couldn't possibly have heard that correctly. He set the sheet of whipped shortbreads on the rack to cool and slid the three pans of gingerbread cake into the oven. With a family the size of his Christmas baking started early and was a big part of almost everyday in December. "it's Noche Buena! The whole family will be there!"

"I know, Papi," Thace sighed, "and I love Noche Buena- but we were there last year and so THIS year we are going to Midnight Mass with Juanita's family. It's not fair for me to expect her to miss this, or to ask her to be okay with me spending EVERY Christmas Eve with the family in Cuba while she spends it with her family in Mexico. We can't make everyone happy every time, Papi and I know you know that."

He sighed and rubbed at his face, "I know that, I do. It's just that… never mind. I don't want to make you feel guilty for making a decision, or argue with you. You can't be in two places at once, and Juanita's family is every bit as important to you guys as we are. I know that. We'll miss you, but I will make sure everyone understands."

"Even Abuela?"

"Well, I will make a valiant effort to make her understand why her grandson is in Mexico on Christmas Eve… I can't promise that you won't get an earful from her though."

"Thanks Papi," Thace rolled his shoulders, eliciting a few cracks and pops, "you'll still see a lot of us over the holidays. Nita's family doesn't have nearly as many traditions as we do."

"We don't have THAT many traditions, Thace!"

"You're kidding, right? We have more traditions than anyone else I know! Our Christmas is practically a script!"

"You're exaggerating!"

"I am not! The first Saturday in December, there's tree shopping with Allura and Coran, because they insist that even after all this time they need help picking an 'appropriate seasonal tree'. We always go to the same tree farm, then we always drink mulled cider and have a sleigh ride. The day after THAT we help Shiro decorate his quarters and trim his tree and we always have that GROSS 'thanksgiving dinner pizza' from that one place he loves by the Garrison, and we all wear dumb elf-hats and we take a picture in front of the tree when it is done."

"Helping friends with decorating isn't exactly a huge number of traditions, Thace."

"I'm not done!" he laughed, "the Holts have their ugly sweater holiday party the second weekend of December, so in between tree trimming at Shiro's and the party we bake cookies with Krolia, Romelle, Shay, and Hunk and all the Pala-brats."

"I really wish you guys would stop using that dumb nickname," Lance sighed, "NONE of you are brats!"

"We have the big McClain charity shopping trip, complete with caramel apples that Marco ALWAYS has to point out aren't anywhere near as good as you used to get from the little candy shop by your house when you were kids." Thace had started counting things out on his fingers, "and we do the official Paladins of Voltron End of Year Video message broadcast, which is always followed by Christmas Carol Karaoke at Student Union Building at the Garrison. We put up our OWN tree and decorate the quarters, and go to the school Holiday concert. All that, and we are just barely touching the second weekend of December, Papi!"

"We are blessed to have so many friends and family Thace- that's what the holidays are all about!"

"I know! I'm just saying it is BUSY, and this will be our third Christmas together and so far, Nita has taken part in pretty much every tradition our family has. She'd done gift-wrapping night, the snowball war, sang carols, made gingerbread houses and ornaments, decorated TOO MANY trees- all of it. She's never complained, not once. But, we are living together now, and her family is important, too… plus- we kind of want to come up with a couple of traditions of our own."

"Like your Dad and I did when we made a point of going to Arus in the Lions to pick those funky little berries that look like snowflakes and taste like salted caramel and going ice skating at the outdoor rink he proposed at every year. I get it." He sighed, "I can't believe you are so grown-up that you are living with your girlfriend and are trying to make COUPLE traditions. Time flies. It feels like you were fighting with your sister and brothers over what to watch on tv just last week. Where'd my chiquito go?"

Thace laughed and hugged him, "I'm right here, Papi. I'm not going anywhere. I'm around all the time- I'm pretty sure I WAS fighting with Talia and Lucas over what to watch on tv when I was here last week putting up the tree… and ONLY you would complain about me moving out when you still have FOUR kids at home."

"You're supposed to still be ten- you know that, right?" Lance teased.

"Ten? Ugh- Papi, ten was not my best year! That's when I was OBSESSED with that stupid show about the sarcastic hamsters that fought demons."

"Quiznak, that AWFUL show! Ham-Ham and the Holy Knights! Okay, not ten. Ten was bad. Maybe… nine? Oh, yeah, nine was a good year! That was when you were going through that super huggy phase. I liked nine."

"Yeah, but *I* like nine-TEEN," he countered. "I have my own place, an awesome girlfriend, who lives with me, school's going well, and I can drink in Canada."

"Smells delicious in here!" Keith laughed as he entered the room, ruffling Thace's hair affectionately, "I don't understand why being able to drink in CANADA, of all places matters so much to you."

"Nita and I have friends in Canada," he answered easily, "how was work?"

Keith shrugged one shoulder, and leaned into Lance, his arm wrapping around his waist easily, "work was work. Nothing exciting happened- which is pretty much the goal. How are exams?"

"Not bad- but I have mostly papers this time around. Next semester's courses are the ones with all the exams."

"Thace was just dropping by to let us know we won't see him on Christmas Eve this year," Lance said to Keith.

"Headed to Mexico this year, huh?" he guessed. "We should send gifts along for Juanita's family, babe. I know how much it meant to Mom when your family all had gifts for her."

"Well, we already have gifts for her siblings and her parents," Lance said mildly, "Thace? Can you get us a list of everyone who will be there for Christmas Eve? I don't want to accidentally leave anyone out."

"Can do, Papi. Maybe some jars of the Lance McClain Secret Recipe All Natural Face Mask? Juanita keeps using mine up on me."

"She does?" Lance's face lit up, "I can do that! I was planning on whipping up a new batch soon anyway!"

Keith chuckled, "you and your face masks. Thace, did you know he used to SLEEP in them?"

"And my skin was PERFECTION, thankyouverymuch!"

"Why'd you stop?"

Lance playfully glared at Keith, who laughed. "Because he's cuddly and I didn't want that goop smeared all over me and the bedding."

"He was too badass for face masks," teased Lance.

"Are you finally admitting that I was more badass than you?"

"You're joking, right? I'm a SNIPER! Snipers are the ultimate badasses, Mullet."

"Okay, okay," laughed Thace, holding his hands up, "enough with the flirting, you weirdos. I should probably get going… I'm in charge of dinner tonight. Nita's got a last minute study group."

"You good for cash?" Keith asked, digging out his wallet.

"Well, I'm not going to turn down money if you are offering," he laughed, "but I'm not tapped out or anything."

"Here," he pulled out a few bills, "babe? You got any cash on you? I've only got 60- that won't go far."

"Yeah, I've got about the same," he dug out his own wallet and added his bills to Keith's. "Buy vegetables. Don't spend it all on booze and burgers."

"I wasn't going to spend it ALL on booze and burgers," Thace promised, "just like… half of it- JOKING! I'm just joking. I swear! I think I'm going through another growth spurt, we can barely keep food in the apartment lately. Shouldn't I be done with those?"

Keith made a noise and headed to the cupboards, opening and closing doors.

"Oh, now you've done it," Lance faux-whispered to his son, "you aren't getting out of here without half our pantry stock. Keith? Babe? Please remember that of our FIVE growing children FOUR of them still live in this place with us. You can't give Thace all our food…"

"Some Galra can have growth spurts for like fifty years," Keith explained, "not that you have much Galra blood… but even your Papi didn't reach his full height until he was 21 or so."

Forty minutes later, Thace was stepping onto his commuter shuttle, loaded down with a week's worth of groceries, plus a dozen shortbreads and one still-warm gingerbread cake… and Lance was writing a shopping list to replenish the household cupboards.

"You are so cute," he said lightly, "just… burying the poor kid in food."

"Being hungry sucks," Keith said with a shrug, "and being hungry during a growth spurt is even worse."

"It's adorable how you fuss over them."

"I'm not the one that loads them down with coats and hats and scarves all the time."

"Only when they are going outside! We live on a spaceship! It's climate controlled- they aren't used to weather patterns!"

"You're adorable with your fussing, too, then."

Lance's arm shot out, catching Keith around the waist and pulling him into his lap. "I'm always adorable," he purred, a flirty smile on his face.

Keith's expression softened, and he dropped an arm around Lance's shoulders. "Yeah, you really are. It's irritating."

"But, you love me."

"I do."

"I love you, too, Keith… Thace was talking about him and Juanita wanted to make new traditions, just for themselves."

"That's sweet," Keith smiled, "they are good together."

"Mmmhmm," he agreed, "but it made me think about a tradition we used to have… before we filled the place with kids who seem to be biologically unable to knock on a damn door…"

Keith's grin turned smokey, "I think I know the one you mean…"

"The one about when work wrapped up early and we had unexpected alone time?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"We should really bring that tradition back, shouldn't we?"

"Definitely…" Keith hopped up, his fingers already on his shirt buttons, "race you to the bed, Sharpshooter!"


	9. Chapter 9- The Coalition Christmas Gala

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"The Coalition Christmas Gala"**

 **Dec 16: Dance/Party**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

 **Cw: discussion of serious life-threatening genetic childhood illness, medical devices, treatments, and non-fatal childhood heart attack.**

"Daaaad! Help me with this stupid…" Talia's voice had started out ear splittingly loud but faded so much with each word that Keith honestly had no idea what he was being requested for. He did the quick courtesy knock that his daughter had drilled into his head when she was about eleven because 'oh my gawwwwwwd! I could have been getting dressed!' and opened the door.

She was getting dressed.

Being tended to by her fathers during repeated hospitalizations, surgeries and recoveries had gotten rid of that particular stripe of self-consciousness pretty quickly. But, he still knocked. Hard habit to break. Besides, it was just basic courtesy.

Her dark hair was swept up into some kind of fancy bun… that wasn't a bun. When he'd called it a bun earlier Talia, Juanita and Lance had all audibly gasped at how very wrong he was to think it was a bun. Whatever. Still looked like a fancy bun to him. The dress she was wearing for the party was hanging on the back of her mirror and she was in stocking feet with one of those slinky dresses you wear under dresses on- a slip, maybe? She didn't get all dolled up often enough for him to have learned this stuff. "What did you need little star?"

"I've got a clog, or a kink in the line or something," she grumbled, "and for me to check I'd have to get all undressed…"

"Okay. Alright," he fought back panic, "hand me the interface." She huffed and handed him the palm-sized device and he noticed that under the lipstick, her lips were blue, and so were her fingertips. He caught her hand, getting a better look, "how long have you been like this?"

"Not long, Dad, I promise," she was calm, but that didn't really reassure him. She'd been completely calm right before her first heart attack when she was twelve, too- despite the fact that her oxygen saturation had been plummeting and her heart racing and she couldn't get enough air into her little body, she'd been eerily calm. "As soon as I noticed I was out of breath, I tried to fix it… and then I called you."

He made a rumbling noise but didn't push. She hated it when they treated her like she was sick. Even though she was ACTUALLY sick. He held the interface to the little sensor just under the skin of her left hand, by her thumb. Her oxygen levels were low. It wasn't dangerous, yet, but they were dropping. More concerning was that as they dropped, her pulse increased. Her pacemaker kept it steady, but her heart wasn't strong enough to handle too much strain. "Okay. We got this. Simple matter of getting you the supply your body is demanding, right?" He flashed a smile he hoped was reassuring and ran through the checklist in his head.

First things first: check the tank. It was the easiest to fix and the most common problem. "Deep breath, sweetheart," he said, waiting for her to get a lungful of air before popping the oxygen canister off of the tubing and replacing it with a fresh one. "Any better?"

She shook her head, sitting down and holding the interface in place. "O2 at 89, Dad," she said softly.

"On it. Arms up!" She did as he asked and he traced the tubing that supplied her with the supplemental oxygen she needed because of the dangerously narrow trachea that 90% of kids with Sandacies Syndrome had. His fingers slid smoothly and quickly from the point where the narrow bio-plastic discreetly vanished between her ribs just below the bra line to where it fused with the tube that connected to the tank, and repeated the process on the other side. "No kinks, and I didn't see a clog."

"Dammit," she hissed and he could hear her struggling to hold back tears.

"It's alright, Talia. We're not done with the check yet. It could still be something we don't need help with."

"Yeah. Okay… you're right."

There was supposed to be a whole procedure for checking each individual oxygen line, but they'd figured out a bit of a hack a while ago. He upped the pressure on the oxygen just a little and then pinched off one tube. "Better?" he asked after a few seconds. She shook her head and he repeated the test on the other side. "How about now?"

"91 and climbing!"

"Awesome! Don't tell Uncle Shiro about this. You know how he is about cutting corners." He grabbed the maintenance gear and went about clearing the troublesome line and re-attaching it, returning the tank settings to her normal. Then he grabbed the interface and changed the function, "but even I won't skip over the pacemaker check."

"Dad, come on! It was just a line issue! The pacemaker is fine."

"Nope- not risking you having another 'incident'." Three years, two months and eight days later, he still couldn't bring himself to say the words 'heart attack' out loud. The little screen showed a swirling 'in progress' screen while it ran a diagnostic of the internal device that prevented her from having dangerous arrhythmias. After a moment, the whole screen flashed blue. "Alright. Good to go. Keep an eye on your oxygen levels tonight- we might need to replace that line."

"I KNOW," she said with a sigh and an eyeroll so hard he could hear it.

He helped her to her feet and studied her face for a moment. Her cheeks were looking rosier, and the blue tinge was gone from around her lips. "Are you SURE you feel up to this?"

"Dad! You guys PROMISED that I could go to the big formal Christmas party this year! I've been looking forward to this for months!" Her brown eyes flashed with anger, "and I know that Uncle Shiro is getting some kind of commendation, and my friend Rhysnaea is going to be there and I haven't seen her since her parents got stationed on that underwater research facility on Mer… and I told Bailey that I was going to be there." Her cheeks went from 'rosie' to 'crimson' on that last part.

"Bailey? Bailey GRIFFIN? That Bailey?"

She nodded, chewing her lip. James Griffin's nephew. His fifteen year old daughter had a crush on James Griffin's seventeen year old nephew. Lance was going to lose his mind. Keith sighed. "Fine… just… pay attention to how you are feeling, please?"

"I promise!"

She looked so damn excited. "Anything else you need my help with?"

She glanced at the dress and he could see her debating. "No," she said finally, "I've got it from here… besides, Papi will KILL you if you try to get out of wearing your dress uniform! You have to go get changed!" She dragged her eyes from the top of his head to his feet and back up, "and for all our sakes, PLEASE let Papi do… Something with your hair!" All of a sudden, she was on the move, turning him with a quick wrench of his shoulders and literally pushing him out the door. "PAPI!" She called, her expression impish, "Dad said he was going to let you do his hair tonight!"

"You are an evil child," he muttered, "we should never have let Pidge babysit you…"

Lance appeared out of literally nowhere. The hallway had been empty. He'd blinked… and then his husband was standing right in front of him, looking too gorgeous for Keith's sanity and sporting such a hopeful smile that he knew he wasn't getting out of the house with his hair loose tonight. "No fancy buns," he said, holding up one finger.

"Keith," he sighed, "it is a braided pompadour chignon. That's what Talia's hairstyle is."

"See? It doesn't really matter what words you SAY, what I HEAR is 'fancy bun'."

Lance shook his head, tsking Keith. "What should I expect from a guy who wore HALF a jacket, and fingerless gloves and had a mullet. A mullet!" he muttered to himself as he steered them to their bedroom. A stack of paperwork caught Keith's eye as they passed the nightstand.

"You didn't throw out the paperwork from Olkarion?" he asked, his voice hesitant.

"No, I didn't. Look, I KNOW how you feel about cybernetics, and I get it. I do. Shiro's galra arm was a trojan horse and things almost went really, really bad. But… this is… what they are proposing, it could change her life. I can't just refuse that outright. I NEED to read the whole thing. I have to have Pidge and Hunk look it over and debate the pros and cons. I mean, I KNOW that it isn't an option unless we both agree, and that you aren't going to agree… but she's going to be an adult in a few years and if she decides to do it then, I want to understand it and I want to be able to help her make her own choice. So, if you are mad, I'm sorry but I am not going to thr-"

"I'm not mad," he said, his voice soft. "Actually, when you are done… I think I want to take a look at the information, too."

"Really?"

"Yeah… She had a clog in her oxygen line and needed help." Keith sighed, "and I kind of realized that she'd picked an outfit based on hiding surgical scars and access to her ports and keeping her oxygen tank out of sight. She just wants to be seen as normal… I… I remember feeling that way. Wanting people to just see me as the same as anyone else. Not the orphan, or the discipline problem, or 'that emo kid', or Shiro's pet project, or the Galra half-breed."

Lance stepped back, giving Keith a little space to just… process. "I can understand why that would bug you. I know you had a really rough time with people writing you off before giving you a chance."

"So… yeah… once you are done with the information, I want to go through it, too. I still do NOT trust cyber stuff… but… the Olkari aren't Zarkon's Galra. These are the doctors we've trusted for her entire life, right?"

"Yeah, that's kind of how I see it. We've trusted them before and they've saved her. It's just- what they want to do is so new. She'd be the first. I'm not completely sold on the idea, you know that, right?"

"Yeah," Keith rubbed at his face, "I suck at the medical stuff."

"Oh, you do not," Lance leaned in and kissed his cheek, "I have seen you change dressings, unclog tubes, and give injections without flinching, because that's what your daughter needs, so you just do it. You don't suck at the medical stuff- you get overwhelmed at the medical gibberish. Completely different thing. Now- sit and let me try to tame this chaos…" He plunked Keith onto the side of the bed and grabbed a little basket of assorted hair… stuff, before eyeing his husband critically. "I don't even know how you… like… just WHAT is happening with your hair right now?"

"I don't know. It's hair. I don't really think about it. Is it doing something weird?"

One of Lance's eyebrows shot up to his hair line and he sighed dramatically, "lemme see what I can manage here."

* * *

Talia looked beautiful in her emerald dress as she laughed with her friends by the punch bowl. Thace and Juanita hadn't left the dancefloor the entire night as far as Keith could tell. Rai was happily chatting away with Pidge and Matt- probably debating video game tactics. Keith was having a good time (even if his hair felt weird tied back in something Lance had called an upside down Dutch braid and his dress uniform was stiff)… and Lance… Lance was working his way through champagne at a dangerous pace.

"How about you eat something?" Keith suggested, plucking the champagne flute from his husband's long fingers.

"Bailey, though?!" Lance said instead, although he did grab a breadstick out of the basket Keith proffered, "Bailey goddamn Griffin?! Why?"

"I mean, he's a handsome enough kid," Keith said with a shrug, glancing over at the tall brunet who was chatting with his daughter. "Tall, nice smile, athletic… most of the girls Talia's age have been paying him attention. He's probably popular."

"But he's James Griffin's nephew. James fucking Griffin, Keith! You HATE James Griffin!"

"One- I do not hate James Griffin. I just… don't particularly LIKE James Griffin. But, Veronica likes him, so he can't be all that awful, right? And two- Bailey isn't James. How would you like it if people wrote off Thace, or Rai because they thought Marco was a jackass in high school?"

"Uhhh… I'll have you know that Marco was very beloved in high school. Everybody liked Marco."

He chuckled, Lance must be tipsy if he was so vocal in defence of his big brother. Sober, he tended to do a better job of hiding his kid brother hero worship. It was cute, though, so Keith wasn't going to mention anything. "Alright- what if people judged Rai and Thace by how Yorak acts?"

"Not a fair comparison- your little brother is Galra and is growing up in the Blades of Marmora. He's not exactly living with the same expectations of behavior… besides, he's Kolivan's son- who in their right mind would even THINK something negative about the little hellion."

"He's not a hellion," Keith laughed, "he's just… a kid. Galra kids are more aggressive, he'll grow out of it." 'It' being his half brother's tendency to growl at Lance- which honestly, Keith suspected he did because it made their mother laugh.

"Bailey Griffin," Lance said again, shaking his head morosely. "Annnnnnd now they are dancing… great. He probably likes her back. That's unacceptable, Keith! If she starts dating Bailey goddamn Griffin I'll… No! I'm not even saying it because it can't happen. It won't. And that's that."

"Does she look winded to you?" Keith asked, worry clenching around his heart like icy thorns.

"She looks beautiful… and no."

"Are you sure?"

Lance caught his hand, lacing their fingers together. "Stop it. She's fine. She's having fun. You checked everything over yourself before we even left our quarters. You are being overprotective and fussy again."

"I'm not fussing," he argued, "I'm just… concerned. It's important that she doesn't overexert herself."

"God, you are cute when you go all Dad-mode."

"Dad-mode? What? I AM a Dad, that's my standard mode. It's been my standard mode for eighteen years."

"No, I mean when you get all protective and worried and stuff. You're adorable."

"Adorable?"

"Yeah… adorable. You're an adorable Dad." He smiled, "you're a great Dad, Keith. You really are."

"High praise, considering the source." He smiled back at Lance, his worry already starting to drain away.

"Thanks," Lance said, scooting his chair over so he could curl up against Keith and watch the spectacle that was the annual Gala. "Shiro did a decent job on the speech. Who do you think wrote it?"

"My guess is your sister," Keith laughed, "and then some jokes added by our daughter. Definitely not Shiro- there wasn't a single pun in the whole thing."

"Mmm true- and there are only two people with the power to keep him away from puns- Roni and Talia, so I think you are probably right- awwww, look at Thace! Dipping Juanita- how sweet!"

"Pretty sure our little boy is in love," Keith cooed.

"Well, he is eighteen, I was in love with you when I was eighteen."

"They all seem so much younger than we were, though."

"They aren't fighting in a war," Lance chuckled, "that has a way of making you grow up faster."

"Thankfully. Thace, Kashi and Yorak are in the first generation of Galra in ten millennia that DIDN'T grow up in the midst of an intergalactic war. That's amazing. It's amazing to think that we had a part to play in that."

"Yeah- look at all these kids, most of them were born after the peace treaties were being signed. Ohhh no! Bailey goddamn Griffin- are you shitting me right now?"

"What- ohhhhhh…" he chuckled as his gaze settled on their daughter and James Griffin's nephew. "Think that's her first real kiss?" he asked quietly.

Lance glared, "don't." He grabbed his champagne flute and downed the contents in one gulp. "I'm gonna hafta pretend I like James Griffin, aren't I? You know that kid lives with him, right?"

Keith just watched Lance and tried to figure out where the time had gone. He still felt like that kid that had fought alongside him all those years ago. Was it really twenty years already? He'd spent two entire decades loving the loud-mouthed, competitive kid that had declared them rivals and pushed him into taking risks and being better and chipped away at his walls until Keith had somehow started to trust people. Twenty years learning how to love people by loving Lance. Almost two decades of raising a family together.

"Hey- babe?"

"Yeah?" Lance was still scowling at the dancefloor.

"You are the best father I have EVER seen. Seriously, you were born for being a parent. So… I don't even need to look over that paperwork. I know you'll make the right call for Talia. I trust your judgement more than mine on this subject."

That managed to pry his attention away from the young pair on the dancefloor, "seriously?"

Keith nodded, "yeah- I know I'm not able to be objective. You are. You handle this, and I'll… be the one to make nice with James as long as those two are a thing. Delegation, right?"

"It's the hallmark of a good leader," Lance replied teasingly. "Making sure each member of the team is doing what they are best at."

"I love you, Lance," he leaned over to kiss him softly. Lance's response was a tad more… enthusiastic, probably courtesy of too much champagne, but Keith wasn't complaining.

"I love you, too, Keith," Lance sighed as he pulled back and went back to snuggling into Keith's chest. "Bailey goddamn Griffin."


	10. Chapter 10 Candy Cane

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"Candy Cane"**

 **Dec 17: Decorating**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic)**

 **CW: discussion of surgical repair of a badly broken bone**

"I wanna go HOME," Kashi grumbled, "I don't like it here."

"I know buddy, but that's a bad break," Lance said, ruffling the five year old's hair, "and they might need to do surgery to fix it."

"Am I gonna get a cool robot leg like Uncle Shiro's arm?" His eyes danced with excitement at the thought.

"Ummm... no… and I'm pretty sure Uncle Shiro would have liked to be able to keep the arm he was born with."

"Uhhhhh… Papi," Kashi's voice was… just far too condescending for a five year old. Someone was being a bad influence on his baby and he was gonna get to the bottom of it- as soon as life was back to normal. "Have you even SEEN Uncle Shiro's arm? Cuz, it is like SUPER cool. He can open the fridge and get a drink from the couch! THE COUCH, Papi!"

"Hmmm…" he nodded thoughtfully, "yeah. That's pretty cool. I know your regular old leg must seem pretty boring, but you aren't getting a robot one. Sorry, dumpling."

"Awww," he deflated, flopping back dramatically and knocking his pillows to the floor and Lance had to shake his head at him, moving to restore the pillows to where they belonged.

Before he could say anything encouraging, the doctor popped into the room. "Mr. Um… Ko-gain?"

"Ko-gah-nee," Kashi said patiently. "Ta-Kah-shi Ko-gah-nee… but everyone calls me Kashi."

"I see," the doctor said, "thank-you Kashi, but I was actually trying to speak with your dad. Mr. Ko- LANCE?!"

He looked up from where he'd been fussing over Kashi's pillows. The doctor was a pretty woman. Tall, with honey brown hair and kind eyes, but he didn't recognize her until she smiled, "oh my God! Xo!"

"Lance McClain," she laughed, "wow- I was not expecting… Hi."

"Hi," he laughed, "this is… definitely a surprise!"

"Ummmm… Hi!" Kashi joined in, "Papi's name's not McClain, it's Kogane."

"Kashi, don't be rude! Sorry, Xo… or I guess, I should call you Xiomara? I know you hated the nickname."

"Yeah, I prefer Xiomara… Dios, it's been… what? 15 years?"

"At least… closer to 20 I think. Wow… you're a doctor. That's amazing! Good for you!"

"Says the Paladin of Voltron," she laughed, "Kashi- did you know that when your Papi was about your age, he tried to build his very own spaceship. He even named it!"

"He did?" Kashi was hooked, he ate up stories about his parents childhoods.

"Mmhmmm… it was… oh! I remember! Mirador De Estrellas," she sat in the empty chair beside Lance, "not a bad name for a spaceship."

"Dr. Marichal was very good friends with your Tia Rachel," Lance explained, "so she was at our house a lot when I was your age."

"I'm not allowed to say it, but Tia Rachel is my favorite," Kashi chirped.

"Seriously Kashi? If you KNOW you aren't allowed to say it, why did you say it right in front of me?" Lance threw his arms out in exasperation.

"I dunno," Kashi just shrugged.

"Sorry about him," Lance said, shaking his head slowly, "he's… one of a kind."

"Gee, I wonder where he gets that," she laughed.

"Tia Veronica is supposed to be my favorite," Kashi explained, "cuz she grew me in her belly… but she's too bossy… and Tia Rachel lets me eat raw cookie dough."

"Takashi Kogane!" Lance gasped, horrified. "Please tell me this is from pain medication!"

She glanced at the chart, and looked sheepish, "sorry… unless he has an unusual response, none of the medications should cause… umm… this."

Lance dropped his face into his hands, "Kashi, dumpling, you are killing your Papi right now."

"At least we are in a hospital," Kashi pointed out.

That made Xiomara choke back a laugh. "Oh man… I like this kid of yours, Lance. Should we go over the treatment plan while I get a look at Kashi here?"

"Yes, please," he said, shooting Kashi a look.

"Right, so, it… could be worse, but we aren't looking at an ideal situation." She checked Kashi's vitals as she spoke. "Ideally we would want to see a nice clean fracture that would be easy to set, pin in place and let it heal. But what we are looking at here is multiple close together breaks, so we definitely need to get him into surgery, and we will be needing to utilize some… uhh… new technology."

"You mean alien tech," Kashi said clearly, crossing his arms over his chest. "Doctors hate to say that they are using alien tech… cuz of bigots. We're not bigots. You can say alien tech."

"Alright then, yes, alien tech," she corrected, ducking her head and listening to his chest to hide her smile, "you know Kashi, most kids your age are afraid to say stuff like that to doctors. You're a brave guy."

"He is pretty… umm.. Outspoken, in general. But, his sister has Sandacies Syndrome," Lance explained, "so we spend a lot of time around medical stuff… and most of her care is overseen by the Olkari."

"Oh. I am very sorry, Sandacies is a tough diagnosis. How old is she?"

"Talia's eight," Lance answered, "and thanks. She's doing really well, though."

"Has Kashi been tested for Sandacies markers?"

"Talia's adopted," Kashi said, "so's Rai, but me and Thace are surro-babies."

"I see," she said with a smile, "so, as I was saying- we'll be using some new medical tech from Puig. It's a biofoam. So, once we stabilize the break, we wrap a sleeve around the affected area, place the screws, and fill the sleeve with the biofoam. Over the course of a few weeks, Kashi's own bone will replace the foam and he'll be good as new. The surgery is pretty involved, though, and he'll need to stay here for at least a week afterwards so we can monitor him. We don't have a whole lot of information on how human dna interacts with this tech yet, so we like to keep a close watch."

"A whole WEEK?! Papi! No!"

"Kashi, if it takes a week, it takes a week."

"But… CHRISTMAS!"

The doctor looked confused, "Christmas isn't for more than three weeks Kashi. You'll be home by then."

Lance shook his head, "no, he's upset about missing out on the decorating. It's his favorite part- putting up the trees and stuff. We help our friends with theirs so it's kind of a whole thing."

"Uncle Shiro said it was my turn to do the star this year, and Coran bought a TRAIN that goes IN the tree!" Tears were welling in the little boy's eyes, "and I'm gonna miss Thanksgiving pizza!"

"Oh, Kashi," any earlier irritation at him vanished and Lance drew his son into a tender hug. "I know, dumpling, but we need to fix your leg… and if the doctor says that's how long it will take, then that's how long it will take. I've known Dr. Marichal since I was your age- she's almost as smart as Pidge."

"I HATE RAI," he wailed against Lance's chest, "this is all his stupid fault- pushing buttons and pickin'at stuff!"

The doctor checked her chart, "says here Kashi's leg got caught in some kind of machinery?"

"Yes- he and his brother were poking around in Hunk's workshop and getting into stuff they KNOW they aren't supposed to touch. So, now the workshops are completely off limits to the kids. Poor Hunk is absolutely distraught." He sat back on his heels and wiped the tears from Kashi's face, "and so is RAI. He feels really bad that you got hurt, Kashi. You know he didn't mean for that to happen."

"But it DID, and it's HIS fault! An'now I'm gonna be STUCK HERE when everyone else is doing fun Christmas stuff! Can't Allura fix it with her glowy magic?"

"Kashi! Allura's alchemy isn't a first aid kit- she only uses it to heal in the most dire situations. You have a broken leg. We don't need to use MAGIC to fix that." That pout really shouldn't be nearly as adorable as it was. As frustrated and worried as he was, Lance was struggling not to coo at his youngest- because he just looked soooo much like a tiny, angry Keith at the moment, with his furrowed brow and purple eyes and scowl. He stood, mussing up Kashi's hair affectionately. "When should we expect the surgery?"

She glanced at the clock, "hmmm… technically it is emergency surgery because it wasn't scheduled in advance, so he'll be ranked for urgency and then as soon as possible. I would say it'll be before the end of the day."

"Surgery?" Keith asked from the doorway.

"Daddy!" Kashi wailed, sticking his arms out.

Keith rushed over and hugged him gingerly, pressing kisses to the top of his head and rubbing his little back. "I'm right here, kiddo," he whispered, "Daddy and Papi aren't going anywhere."

"Keith, this is Dr. Marichal, she's an old friend of Rachel's, she's in charge of Kashi's case. Xiomara, this is my husband, Keith," Lance returned to his seat, knowing that Keith wasn't leaving Kashi's side until they wheeled him off for surgery.

Keith extended his hand to shake hers, "it's nice to meet you Dr. Marichal, you were saying he needs surgery?"

"Femur breaks are pretty serious," she said with a nod before running through the surgical plan with him again.

"I'm gonna miss ALL the fun stuff," Kashi sniffled.

"No, you won't, precious," Keith promised, "we'll save lots of fun stuff for when you are home with us."

"Shiro's PIZZA… and Coran's TRAIN…"

"I'll talk to Shiro and Coran. I promise." He pulled back and looked Kashi in the eye, "have I ever broken a promise to you?"

"No," the little boy hiccuped.

"Right. So, I won't break this one. I will talk to Uncle Shiro and Coran while you are getting your leg fixed up and I will find a way for you to not miss out on all your favorite stuff."

"You promise?" he asked, hope blooming in his amethyst eyes.

"I PROMISE. Paladin's honor."

"Okay," sniffled Kashi, "thank-you, Daddy."

Lance smiled, he should have known that Keith would be able to put Kashi's worries to rest. People were always surprised at just how good Keith was with kids. They assumed that he'd be awkward and standoffish with them the way he was with adults, but he wasn't at all. Lance had yet to see a child that didn't immediately take to Keith and he'd never seen a kid that Keith didn't like.

"You don't have to thank me, Kashi," Keith soothed, "can you get those papers signed, Tumbleweed? I'm gonna chill out with our little guy for a bit."

"Sure thing babe," Lance answered, "alright Xiomara, where do I sign?"

"If you come with me, I'll get you all set up with the paperwork," she said nodding toward the door. He followed her to a little room that had a little table and a few chairs. It reminded him of signing the adoption paperwork for the twins. "I have to ask- 'Tumbleweed'?"

He laughed, "ah... That… I took him on a romantic ice skating date. I thought it would be like rollerblading. I was wrong. He called me Tumbleweed because I couldn't stay upright until taught me how to ice skate… then he proposed that day, so it stuck."

"Well, that is straight out of a Hallmark movie! Very cute. Definitely a keeper," she said, laughing as she organized all the papers, "Kashi looks a lot like him."

"Yeah, he's just a lot like him, in general. Brave, stubborn… blunt," he laughed, and pulled out his phone, bringing up a picture of all the kids, "Thace looks more like me… or, well… like Rachel, I guess."

"That's definitely YOUR smile on that little girl," she laughed, and passed him the stack. He put the phone away and started scrawling his name on the flagged spots. She smiled at him, "I always get a kick of how much adopted kids end up looking like the people that raise them just because of expressions and mannerisms."

"Yeah, it's wild… and it carries over, too. Like, sometimes Rai will open his mouth and I SWEAR he's channeling Shiro… who raised Keith. Family is…" He shrugged, "it's a kind of magic, I think."

"I like that, I might steal it to help reassure parents." She sat in one of the chairs across from him, "you have a beautiful family, Lance. I'm glad I got to meet some of them- although it could have been under better circumstances."

"I'm sure you will meet the others in the next couple of days," he laughed, "we've got the whole hospital visitation thing down to an art."

"So… ummm… Kashi said Veronica carried him? How is she doing?"

He glanced up at her between signatures, "are you sure you want me to answer that?"

"Yes… I mean… I think so… Just.. don't tell me if it is bad," she blushed, "I don't want to know if it isn't good."

"Roni is great," he answered, "she pretty much runs the world- although no one seems to have noticed yet. She's single right now… but she's got a couple of on again off again things, so that could change."

"Good. That's… good. I'm glad she's doing well. She deserves it."

"Want me to tell her you say hi?" he asked, signing the last line and returning the pages to a neat stack.

She gave him a wistful smile as she took the paperwork, "yeah. Yeah, tell her I said hi… and give my love to the family."

"Will do."

* * *

"You are such a charmer," Keith whispered, wrapping his arms around Lance. "He's going to be so excited to see this!"

"You were the one that had the idea AND arranged everything," Lance chuckled, leaning back against his husband, and resting his hands on top of Keith's. "All I did was convince the nurses to look the other way about the number of visitors."

Trudy, one of the nurses, poked her head into the room, "he's awake. They'll be bringing him down any minute. Everything looks great."

"Thanks so much," Lance said. He could FEEL the worry and tension drain out of Keith's frame. "Babe- it's a broken leg. He's fine."

"It's a broken FEMUR and he needed surgery, Lance."

"He's five and still growing. He'll be back to driving everyone bonkers before you know it." He turned in Keith's arms, "you are such a worrywart when it comes to the kids. It's cute."

Keith rolled his eyes, "this again?"

"Mmhmm… my husband is CUTE."

"Lannnnnce… quit it."

"CHECK OUT MY CAST! IT LOOKS LIKE A CANDY CANE!"

They both laughed as Kashi was wheeled into the room. Sure enough the fiberglass cast that encased his leg was red and white candy-cane striped. Lance had to remind himself to breathe when he saw the metal frame and the screws that disappeared into the fiberglass- even though he'd known they'd be there, even though he knew they weren't hurting his little boy.

"Very festive," Keith said with an encouraging nod.

"See, dumpling? I told you that Xiomara was awesome. How are you feeling?"

"My skin feels tickle-y and I'm thirsty," Kashi answered, "but my leg doesn't even hurt!"

"Are you up to more visitors?"

"Sure- is Tia Rachel here? She can see her friend!"

"Sorry bud, no Rachel," Keith answered as Lance ducked out of the room to gather the others.

A few minutes later Shiro, Coran, Thace, Talia, Krolia, Allura, and Romelle came into the room, carrying boxes of assorted sizes. A chagrined Rai and weeping Hunk followed and made a beeline to the little boy, tripping over each other to be the first to apologize. Hunk was barely coherent until Kashi patted his back and assured him that it wasn't Hunk's fault and he wasn't mad.

Rai didn't even speak- not that he was a particularly talkative child- and Lance suspected he didn't trust himself not to cry. Rai HATED hospitals, always had, but he had insisted on being here for the entire duration of the surgery. He climbed up onto the bed beside his little brother and gingerly wrapped his arm around him while they both glared at spots on the bed somewhere in the vicinity of their knees.

Silent tears spilled out of Rai's eyes and he dug his hand into the big pocket in the front of his hoodie, pulling out a sloppily wrapped rectangle and handing it to Kashi. Kashi took the gift and cautiously tore the paper off of it to reveal Rai's handheld gaming system. "What?"

"Gets boring in hospitals," Rai muttered, "and they keep saying you're too little, so you can have mine. S'my fault you're hurt and stuff."

"You're GIVING me this?" Kashi's eyes were so huge they looked like they'd fall right out of his head.

Rai just nodded, not looking up. "M'sorry."

"Rai, it was an accident," Kashi said after a moment. "Wasn't on purpose."

"You were so mad," Rai whispered, "said you hated me."

"Don't be stupid."

Lance had to bite his tongue to keep from chiding Kashi about calling his brother stupid, but he managed. He knew they needed to work this through on their own.

"Your cast looks like a candy cane… can I be the first one to sign it?"

"Sign it?"

"That's what you do with casts, bud," Thace said, earning 'cool big brother points' as Kashi's face lit up.

"Really?"

"Definitely," confirmed Keith.

"I'll see if the nurses have any markers!" Talia was already out the door before she finished speaking.

"Cooooool! Hey! What's in all the boxes?"

"Well," said Shiro, "you always help us make our places ready for Christmas, so this year, it's our turn to help YOU."

"We brought you a little tree," Allura added.

"And ornaments," said Romelle.

"I found some battery-powered lights for your room, sweetheart," Krolia added.

"And I thought that you might want to have a train running on the tree-gown-"

"-tree-SKIRT, Coran," Lance chuckled.

"Yes, of course! I thought you might enjoy having a train running on the tree-SKIRT until you come home," Coran finished, twirling his moustache.

"I get to decorate my hospital room?" Kashi was floored, he didn't know where to look, his big eyes darting from person to person. "Really?"

"Really," Keith confirmed.

"And Tia Pidge will be here soon with a little Thanksgiving pizza for you and I to share," Shiro said as he ruffled Kashi's hair, "if you feel up to eating."

"Best. Day. Ever!" squealed the five year old, the prospect of decorating his hospital room seeming to have completely overpowered the reason that he was in one in the first place.

Talia returned with two fistfuls of colorful markers and started handing them out to people as Allura and Shiro began unpacking the boxes and organizing the contents.

By the time Lance was able to get close enough to his son to sign the cast and give him a hug and kiss, the room was looking very festive. Keith and Shiro were singing carols. Rai was showing Kashi all the best games on his system. Thace and Pidge cutting red and green construction paper into strips that Hunk was stapling into a long chain.

They'd attracted the attention of some of the other kids on the ward and a few of the more mobile and energetic ones had joined in on their fun. Allura had quietly ducked out to visit the kids who weren't up to it. The Paladins, in general, had a certain amount of fame, even now, but Allura, the Alien Princess, was a bonafide celebrity.

"This was definitely a stroke of genius," Lance whispered to Keith, "you've saved his Christmas."

"I made a promise," Keith answered, his voice matter of fact.

"I love you, babe."

"I love you, too, Tumbleweed."


	11. Chapter 11 Jigsaw

Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr

Klancemas 2018

"Jigsaw"

Dec 18: Snowed In

(A future Klance-Family Fic)

Keith woke to the smell of food. Something vaguely reminiscent of bacon and eggs, but not… quite. There was a very strange quiet stillness to the air that he wasn't a huge fan of, too. And he wasn't the only one who felt it- Kosmo was pacing. Weird. There was something weird going on.

He was just about to call out to Lance when the bedroom door swung open and Lance appeared before him, dressed in pj bottoms and an apron, carrying a tray, and holding a neon green alien flower between his teeth, tango-style. "Ayyy-baape," he said around the stem, the flower making his pronunciations strange, and set the tray over Keith's lap. He pulled the flower out of his mouth and bowed dramatically, offering up the pleasant smelling plant with an over the top flourish. "Breakfast in bed for Mr. Kogane, prepared especially for you BY Mr. Kogane."

"Lance, the wedding was six months ago," he laughed, accepting the flower, "when are you going to get sick of that joke?"

"Ummm… never!" He looked scandalized, "you, sweetums, did not get to see the look on your face when you found out I was taking your name. If you had, you'd know, I am never going to get sick of reminding you that I am Mr. Kogane. Ever."

"Dork," he muttered, letting his hair fall into his face to hide his blush… because, despite his protests, he loved it. He loved that Lance took his name. Loved Lance's reasons for it "your Dad was a hero, and he had one son… who is also a hero… I am VERY proud to be a Kogane". Loved that Lance made a point of reminding him of it, or correcting people who called him McClain. Loved that even now, half a year after the wedding, he'd still find 'Mr. & Mr. Kogane' doodled on scrap paper and napkins and the margins of paperwork that had been within reach when Lance was trying to pay attention to something that bored him. It was something he hadn't thought mattered to him until the instant that it happened.

Lance had a knack for knowing what would make him happy, or upset. It sometimes felt like Lance knew him better than he knew himself. When he'd mentioned it, Lance had waved him off saying that Keith knew- he'd just spent so long convincing himself not to care so he didn't get disappointed when it didn't happen, that he just ignored it. Lance didn't ignore it.

Lance's long fingers cupped his chin and tipped his face back up, "but I'm YOUR dork, so… what does that say about you, Mullet?"

"That I am incredibly lucky?" he guessed, smiling tenderly at Lance.

"Nice save," Lance laughed, "you're learning."

"Maybe marriage just agrees with me," he countered, closing the distance between them to give his husband a kiss. "Is this all for me, or are we sharing?"

"We are sharing," Lance crawled into the bed beside him, "it's more romantic…. And there are fewer dishes that way."

"Alright, but we shouldn't get distracted," Keith said, trying for a serious tone, despite the huge smile on his face. "It feels really late. We need to get going."

"Yeahhhh," he drawled, "about that… we aren't going anywhere."

"What do you mean?" Keith froze, his fork mid-air. "We finished up the mission YESTERDAY. We need to get back."

"Soooo, while we were sleeping, it snowed," Lance offered him a wan smile.

"Okay- snow isn't a big deal."

"On thiiiiiiis planet, it kinda is, though," Lance said, "because the entire cabin is buried. I was talking to Rigrill on the intercom- remember Rigrill? He was the check-in guy at that weird pool-slash-gym-slash-bouncey-house- building? Anyway, he said that this happens all the time and that we should be able to leave by the end of the night."

"The end of the NIGHT?" Keith echoed.

"Yeah…" he looked sheepish, "by the time we get out of here, get to the Lions, and make our way home…"

"It will be lunchtime, at the earliest," he sighed.

"Yeah." His shoulders sagged, "I'm sorry. I know you promised my parents we'd be there for Noche Buena celebrations tonight, and your mother and Shiro were going to join us for Christmas brunch in the morning. I shouldn't have pushed to spend the night here. I messed up our first Christmas as a married couple."

"You didn't mess anything up, Lance," Keith sighed, "you had no way of knowing that we'd get stuck here."

"I just thought it was so pretty with all the ice walls and the rainbow lights and stuff."

"I know," he smiled at Lance, "and it was. We had a really great night. Stop being so hard on yourself. I can think of worse things than being stuck in a luxury cabin with you for a day."

That seemed to cheer Lance up a bit, he peeked up at Keith, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips, "you're sure?"

Keith laughed, "yes, Lance. I'm sure. Now, eat… before the breakfast you made us gets cold."

Lance picked the flower up from where Keith had set it on the tray and tucked it behind his ear, the bright green standing out against Keith's black hair. "Love you, Mullet."

"I can't believe you STILL call me that," Keith sighed, "my hair was never a mullet. It's just long."

Lance paused in his eating long enough to snicker at him, "mullet… mulllllllll-et…"

"You realize that your mother loves me and has offered to show me allllll the photo albums, right? I heard rumors from your brother about some kind of mishap with beard trimmers?"

Lance gasped, clutching his chest dramatically, "you wouldn't! You PROMISED!"

He took a bite of the not-bacon and quirked one eyebrow in a clearly challenging expression.

"Keith!" Lance squawked, "I'm serious! No looking at childhood pictures with my Mom! I almost put it in the VOWS!"

He washed the bite down with some water- which tasted oddly perfumey. Not BAD, just weird. "You realize that's VERY strange, right?" he laughed, "almost concerningly so. Silvio looks almost exactly like you and he's a cute kid- what on EARTH could be so awful in those pictures."

"Nope! Not telling! And you are going to KEEP that promise. Right?"

Keith narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but relented. "Fine. I promised. I keep my promises." He leaned over to kiss Lance's jaw softly, "just… remember that I ALSO promised to love you no matter what the universe throws at us. I think some bad photographs and embarrassing home videos falls into that category… don't you, Tumbleweed?"

"Yeahhhh," Lance drawled, "I don't want to risk it."

"You're ridiculous," Keith muttered, shaking his head.

"Hey! You knew that when you married me!"

"I wasn't claiming it was a NEW development, Lance!"

The conversation devolved into their unique brand of flirting- half good natured ribbing, part challenging each other, and part genuine affection. Most people didn't quite get it, but it worked for them. By the time the food was gone, they were both well-fed, as was Kosmo, who was routinely snuck morsels from each of them as they both pretended not to notice the other breaking the 'no table scraps for the space wolf' rule.

Keith insisted on clearing the tray away, since Lance had cooked. The cabin had started to get chilly, so after he loaded the dishes into the cleaning machine, he built up the fire. The alien wood burned blue and purple and green, but he'd been assured that it was absolutely safe. It was pretty, actually. Once the fireplace was pumping heat out again he wandered over to the funky windows. They looked like the rest of the wall, but you could trigger a panel and they turned completely transparent. He and Lance had spent a good few hours taking in the breathtaking views from their windows of the ice walls- huge cliffs of what looked like icicles, that caught the light and glowed in rainbow hues. There had been some absolutely gorgeous pale blue and lilac swan-like creatures that Lance had fallen in love with, too. As the sun set, the entire place lit up, and the birds took to the sky once full dark hit, luminescent against a starless sky. It had been well worth getting stuck here an extra day.

He wanted to get an idea of how the snow clearing was coming along, so he triggered the windows. At first he thought it hadn't worked- there'd been so little change in the greyish blue wall. It took him a moment to realize that the light was different in the window sections. The walls were the same color as a drift of snow. Lance hadn't been kidding when he'd said the cabin was buried! Yikes!

"Cool! I found some… umm… I think that's a board game, but I don't know the alphabet, so probably not gonna be able to figure out the rules… Oh! This is a jigsaw puzzle! No language barrier to a jigsaw puzzle, right?"

Keith looked over to see his husband, barefoot and bare chested, but wrapped in a blanket he'd stolen from the bed, holding up a wide, shallow box triumphantly. His heart skipped a beat, just at the sight. They'd been married for 6 months, engaged for a year and a half before that, dating for almost a year before THAT… and before they'd started officially dating… well, things had been complicated and confusing and intense. But he could barely remember what life was like without Lance by his side. He SHOULD be accustomed to it by now… but no. A few times a day. Everyday. Every SINGLE day. Without fail. A few times a day, Lance would say something, or he'd catch a glimpse of him doing something totally normal and unremarkable, or he'd catch a whiff of Lance's scent lingering on his skin, or the pillow, or his collar and he'd fall, all over again. His breath would catch, just like it was doing right now. He'd get butterflies, just like he had right now. His heart would skip a beat, just like it just had… and his blood would sing, drowning out everything but Lance. "No, I guess there isn't," he answered with a smile.

"Spiked hot chocolate and puzzles in front of the fire?" Lance suggested, "I'll share my blanket…"

"I think that's OUR blanket, babe."

"Possession is nine tenths of the law, love. I know you know that." Lance tsked, "but my offer to share still stands…" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, making Keith laugh.

"Alright," he agreed, "you get set up with the puzzle, I'll make us some spiked cocoa."

"Yes! Best hubby ever!"

"Are you talking about me? Or patting yourself on the back?" he teased.

"A little of column a, little of column b," Lance shot back.

It took four rounds of spiked hot chocolate, and a fair bit of good natured squabbling to complete the puzzle. When they'd pressed the final piece into place, the image on the puzzle changed. What had been a simple geometric pattern of softly shifting colors morphed into a holographic image of the ice cliffs, a flock of those swans taking flight and dissipating into twinkling lights that lingered in the air for a moment.

"Wow," Lance breathed, his face flushed, eyes bright, features soft and relaxed from the buzz they'd gotten from the hot chocolate, flickering light from the fire dancing over his face and hair. "Soooo beautiful…"

"Yeah," Keith agreed, heat coiling in his gut, skin crackling from being so close to Lance, curled into the same blanket, brushing and bumping against each other for the last couple of hours. "Gorgeous…"

Lance turned his face, it looked like he'd been about to say something, when he'd caught the expression on Keith's face. Keith could watch the realization that he hadn't been looking anywhere near the hologram when he'd agreed wash over Lance's face in a sweep of color. The flush from the alcohol deepened into a true blush, those blue eyes darting away and then back again, "did you even see what the puzzle did?"

"Mmhmm," he nodded, "kinda… corner of my eye…" He reached out to trace his fingers along Lance's jawline, smiling when Lance let his eyes drift shut in a very long blink and sighed.

"You know," Lance whispered, wrapping his arms around Keith under the blanket, "technically, we are still newlyweds…"

"Mmmm?" He tipped his face up to Lance's.

"Mmmhmmm… and newlyweds are kind of notorious for not being able to keep their hands off each other…"

"Ahhh… yeah… that… is a thing that is true…"

"And it's not like we can really GO anywhere…" Lance's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Not safely, anyway," Keith agreed, inching closer, "and we have a limited supply of firewood…"

"Very true… we should," his gaze settled on Keith's mouth, his own tongue peeking out to lick his lips, "do all we can to… conserve heat…"

Keith nodded slowly, completely mesmerized by Lance's face, "keep each other warm…"

"Yeah. That." And then Lance was kissing him and they were falling back onto the plush rug in in front of the fire all hungry kisses and lazy caresses… and by the time either of them was ready to pay any attention to anything but each other, the snow had been cleared- much earlier than expected.

If they rushed, they might just be able to get to Cuba before midnight. Maybe. Keith slid into the pilot seat in Black's cockpit and rolled his eyes at Black's almost teasing reaction to his emotional state. "Stuff it, Kitty. I'm a newlywed. I'm supposed to be lovestruck," he muttered, getting situated.

"Keith?" Lance's face popped up on the display in front of him. "There was a gift on my seat when I got here. Is this from you? Or did someone find some way into Red?"

"It's from me," Keith answered, smiling, "Kosmo played Santa for me."

"You want me to open it now?" Lance asked, beaming.

"Up to you," Keith answered, "it's nothing that NEEDS to be private, if that's what you are wondering."

"Then I think I'll wait," he answered, chewing at his lip as if he was second guessing himself. "Let's get home."

About halfway back to Earth, Lance popped up on Keith's display again, "when did you find the time to get this!?"

Keith laughed, "I thought you said you were going to wait?"

"I DID wait," Lance huffed, "we are halfway home! Now, answer me!"

"I asked Rigrill about it when we were leaving. He said the gift shop had a bunch. I bought one, the shop wrapped it, Kosmo dropped it off- all while we were walking back to the Lions. You like it?"

"Babe! I love it. That was the coolest puzzle I ever saw," Lance gushed, "and I like… having… a reminder…" Lance flushed adorably.

Keith smiled, "good. Me, too. I really liked our first Christmas Eve as a married couple."

"Aww, you're being all romantic on me and I can't even kiss you right now. Evil, wonderful man."

"I feel so loved," Keith teased.

"You should," Lance replied, his voice soft and loaded with emotion, "because you are. So loved."

"I know," he answered, softly, "I DO know, I never doubt it… and so are you."

"I never doubt it, either."


	12. Chapter 12 The Hat

**Written for the Klancemas event by MonthlyKlance on tumblr**

 **Klancemas 2018**

 **"The Hat"**

 **Dec 19: Mistletoe**

 **(A future Klance-Family Fic.. just, set before the family part. This is the earliest I've set a story in this timeline- here's a little early days of Klance)**

"I am not sure I understand the purpose of all this… tin-sell?" Romelle said cheerfully from her perch on the ladder where she was helping Hunk decorate the auditorium at the Garrison for the annual Holiday Dance. "Does it have some symbolic meaning?"

"Um… maybe? I mean, yeah, it probably did when people first started using it, but now it is mostly just there to sparkle and look pretty."

"I see! Well, it certainly is quite lovely. It makes the… basket?... look… ummm… like something not used for a sporting event," she smiled brightly, pleased that she was starting to understand some of the odd customs that surrounded mid-winter here on Earth. It wasn't her first 'holiday season' on earth, but it was definitely the first time she had the time and energy to pay much attention to the local customs.

Many of them were quite odd. Like the one where you are expected to kill a tree to bring it into your home and cover it in shiny plastic and glass and metal… and sometimes the corn that is popped, on a string… but only for a few weeks. Or the one where you pulled someone's name out of a hat and you had to buy them a gift, but not tell them you were buying it, even though everyone knew they were getting a gift. Or the making and exchanging of a cake made with dehydrated foods that were rehydrated in liquid, and that no one seemed to want to eat except Shiro and Coran. Or the hanging of very oddly and impractically shaped foot coverings overnight and waking to them being filled with candy, for some reason?

Also, there seemed to be NO consensus, whatsoever, about when specific traditions happened, and everyone seemed to do something totally different. Hunk's family had a birthday cake for the son of God that was born human, but also was the SAME God? Lance's family celebrated at night, but everyone else seemed to talk about the morning being the exciting part. Even the Holts fought among themselves about when to do which thing.

It was just… a very complicated time. Complicated, and busy… but beautiful.

"All right," Hunk said, brushing the palms of his big hands together in the way that he did when he was baking. "Garlands, lights, tinsel, and streamers are all in place. Now we just need to get the tree set up over by the sound booth, and we should be done… with plenty of time to spare for everyone to go get all dressed up for tonight."

"This room looks completely different than when we arrived," Romelle gushed.

"Yup. That's the magic of Christmas," Hunk agreed,

Right. Somehow there was magic involved as well, although she was fairly certain humans did not possess Alchemy abilities.

"Wowwwwwwww," Lance slowly turned in a circle as he crossed the basketball court… that was also a dancefloor, tipping his head back to look at all the decorations. "You guys are, like, workshop-caliber elves, for sure! It looks great Hunk!"

"Thanks, man," Hunk said with a grin, "Romelle was an awesome help. Couldn't have done it without her."

"Are you excited for your first Christmas?" Lance asked her, setting down the box he'd been carrying.

"Oh, yes! I just hope I don't forget anything important!"

"Alright, I can help with that! Checklist time!" He held up his hands like he was getting ready to count things out, "do you… have your outfit for tonight's dance all picked out?"

"Yes," she nodded, "it has been chosen, cleaned and is ready to be worn."

"Have you decided on how you are wearing your hair?" He was definitely counting things out on his fingers.

"Yes, I asked advice from several humans whose appearance I admire."

"Ooooh, nice tactic!" He did that very light punch of knuckles to knuckles that the Paladins seemed to favor against her hand, "do you have a date? Or are you going on your own?"

"Allura and I are attending together," she answered with a nod.

"Waiiiiit… Like, TOGETHER together? Or just regular together?"

"Ummmm…" she really didn't know how to answer that.

"He wants to know if it's a date, or if you and Allura are going as friends," Hunk laughed.

"Either is okay!" Lance cut in quickly, "the checklist just changes a bit depending on the answer."

"Hmm… we didn't clarify that," she mused, tapping her chin. "Right. I must go speak to the Princess. I will be back shortly, Hunk!"

Lance watched as the blonde Altean bounded out of the room. "Is she… just going to go ASK Allura if tonight was supposed to be a date?"

"Yeah," Hunk nodded, picking up the box, "she's like that. Bold. Speaks her mind. I like that about her."

"I do, too… it's just… most people would be all nervous and awkward. Good for her, though. Hey! Look what I found in my old junk!" He pulled a novelty snapback out of his back pocket and plunked it on his head. A cartoonish spring coiled up from the hat, dangling a sprig of mistletoe. "Tonight's gonna be awesome! Just like old times!"

"Old times, huh?" Hunk levelled a look at Lance. "Do you REMEMBER how that hat went over last time?"

"Last time," Lance pointed out confidently, "I wasn't a Paladin of Voltron, and hero of an intergalactic war. Tonight is going to be AWESOME."

"If you say so, bud," Hunk replied, sounding anything but convinced, "just… last time the mistletoe hat was going to be awesome, it… ummm… wasn't. Half the people ignored you, and the other half glared… and I think a couple of people slapped you, didn't they?"

"That was different," Lance scoffed, "I was just a cadet back then. Now I'm the Red Paladin. You'll see… girls will be LINING up to kiss Loverboy Lance under the mistletoe!"

"Girls will be lining up," Hunk repeated, shaking his head at Lance.

"What?"

"I just don't want to see you get your hopes up and it not pan out, bud," Hunk's voice was gentle, "you've been through a-"

"Ah-bip-bip-bip-bip," Lance cut him off, talking with his hands, "none of that. Tonight's going to be AWESOME!"

* * *

It was NOT awesome.

Lance was not having a good time. Allura and Romelle were indeed on a date, and he was happy for them, really. Like, REALLY. He knew how much it meant to Allura to have someone other than Coran that understood her culture and background and shared her heritage. And Romelle… she was great. Really great. Beautiful and brave and determined and funny and kind and smart… really great. She was like, an awesome mix of all Lance's favorite people.

It was just… Seeing them together- it reminded him of what he thought he'd wanted for so long. Of the time he'd wasted pinning his hopes on a romantic connection with someone who would only ever be a friend. Of what he'd missed out on because of a stubborn, misplaced hope. Of how he had a very bad habit of doing that and getting hurt from it… and couldn't seem to learn how to NOT do that.

It wasn't just Allura and Romelle, though. It was jarring to be back in the Garrison Auditorium after having gone through so much. It was so familiar, but it seemed… like a bad fit now. He felt too old to be here, at the Holiday Dance- even though there were plenty of people here who were much older than him. But, his classmates and friends had gained years on him due to the weird time stuff that he didn't fully understand. He just didn't belong here anymore.

He didn't know most of the popular music, or any of the latest pop-culture references or in-jokes. The people he'd known on Earth didn't understand half of his jokes or stories. He'd recount some adventure to a group of admirers (because, Voltron had fans on Earth, just like they did when they were doing the Voltron Show), and inevitably he would make some reference that went right over their heads and conversation would peter out. But, how do you describe WHY Yalmor calling is funny, or how bad the swamps on Nessipitimia smell, or how important a cow can become to you in space, to someone who has never left Earth's orbit and have them GET it?

He'd made a great joke about Slav and Sven that would have had Pidge and Hunk in tears. The story he told about how he'd gotten away from a pissed off Kwirgunfex by climbing a tree and boosting from branch to branch would have impressed Keith or Shiro. His impression of the way the Ambassador from Leymminchek kept screwing up Lance's name would have earned commiseration and chuckles and praise for his patience from Coran and Allura. But, tonight, when he'd told the stories, made the jokes, did the impressions, all he got was blank faces, or feigned understanding from people who felt like he was spewing gibberish. It was worse than when he'd first arrived from Cuba and would sometimes forget to speak in English when he got excited, but he still knew that look- the frozen smile, the darting eyes, the stiff posture that screamed 'I have no idea what is going on, get me away from this weirdo'. He'd travelled the known universe, been to an alternate reality, and spent time on the astral plane, but he'd never had such a jarring case of culture shock as attending his old school's Holiday Dance had triggered.

And, on top of all that- he'd been sadly, sadly wrong about the mistletoe hat. Lots of people thought it was funny. He'd gotten tons of playful ribbing from old classmates who thought it was a great 'hey, remember when I wore this to that dance that one time? Hahahaha- kids, amiright?" nod. Which, honestly, was better than some of the alternatives. By ten, he'd stuffed the hat into his back pocket again and taken up people watching from a spot on the wall near the equipment room. Around eleven he'd realized that his friends weren't going to notice his absence. They never really did anymore. It had been that way… for a while, now… since, before Lotor. He'd stayed there, leaning against the wall, until almost midnight.

He'd been just about to slip out of the dance before the exit got crowded with kids needing to obey curfew when Keith had walked past him, opened the door to the equipment room and motioned for him to follow with a jerk of his head. They'd slipped from one darkened room to the next with ease gained on far too many stealth missions.

"Keith?" he'd whispered, unsure of what was going on, "is everything okay?"

Keith crowded him back against the wall, "mistletoe?"

"Mistletoe HAT," Lance countered trying to act normal. He felt… anything but normal. His heart stuttered in his chest. His mouth went dry. His breath hitched.

"So…" Keith smirked, and it DID THINGS to Lance, "did it work?"

"Hmmm?" How the heck was Keith always so damn WARM?

He laughed, softly… low in his chest, "the hat, Lance. Did the hat work?"

"Oh! Oh… hmmm…" he flushed, shaking his head, "not so much."

"In that case…" Keith's hands settled on his waist and he got hit with a rush of memory. Those slender fingers. That mouth. Those damn purple eyes. Lance's eyes screwed shut in an attempt to staunch the vivid images that were flooding him.

Quiznak.

"Maybe…" Keith pressed closer. Taller than he used to be. Broader, too. The fingers that slid along his skin, just above the waistband of his jeans had calluses that hadn't been there before. Bigger. Cooler. More grizzled.

"You should…" He felt a shift and then Keith was tugging the hat into place on his head.

"Try again…" And Keith's lips were on his and his blood was on fire and every heated, frantic memory he'd tried so hard to ignore ever since Keith had left AGAIN, flared to life in crystal clarity.

It burned away all the reasons he'd come up with to keep his distance. To stay on guard. To keep things professional.

Platonic.

'Normal'.

It burned away all the confusion. The hurt. The rejection and frustration and regret.

It always did.

Keith touched him, like this… just ONCE and everything was ash on the wind except...

Keith's hands in his hair.

Keith's taste on his tongue.

Keith's chest pinning him to the wall.

Keith's voice in his ear.

Keith's name on his lips.

Keith…

Keith… Keith…

It was after two am when it occurred to him to even think about the time, sprawled on a gymnastics mat, surrounded by nets and balls and sports gear, naked and sated and starting to feel the beginnings of the inevitable crash. Because he denied it, but he knew. He'd known for ages. He knew he was in love with Keith… and that Keith… was 'just not a relationship kinda guy'.

"Thought we were done with this," he said after a while. "You've pretty much avoided me since we got back to Earth."

"We've been busy… and there are a million eyes on us," Keith replied, rolling onto his side and watching Lance's face. "You wanna be done with this?"

"That's not a fair question," he grumbled, "we both know you don't want to get stuck with me."

"Do we?"

He hated the way those two words stopped him in his tracks… because, yes. They did. They stopped him dead, and they DID know. That had been a direct quote. Keith's reason for voting for Lance to go free from the game show.

Besides, even before that, Keith was like… smoke. It worked its way into the very fabric of you and lingered… and lingered… and lingered until all you could smell was smoke… lingered until you didn't even notice it anymore, until it was gone… and then all you noticed was the ABSENCE.

Like smoke, dancing on the edge of reality, seeming so, so real and present and mesmerizing until you tried to touch it, pull it close, hold it, rely on it… and were left with nothing but the smell of it seeping into you.

"Don't we?"

"Didn't really think the guy in the mistletoe hat was shopping for a relationship."

"Keith." He sounded tired. He WAS tired.

"Lance." He rested his hand on Lance's hip. "It was just me, my mother, and a wolf for TWO years. I'm… adjusting." He sighed, "I'm trying to adjust."

"Alright, I can see how that might take some time," he did his best to keep his voice level, quiet, "but you aren't on a space whale anymore. Time is moving at the same rate for all of us… and I'm not stuck on a space castle with the same five other people day in and day out…"

"You're done waiting," he sighed again.

"I'm done waiting."

"Okay. I get it." His eyes drifted shut for a moment. "Spring. If we aren't being pulled in a million directions at once by spring. April. By April. Alright?"

"You aren't being super clear right now, Keith."

He dragged in a breath and let it out in a huff. "I missed you. A lot. On the whale. More than the others." His hand trailed over Lance's chest and he loved and hated the way he trembled from such a simple touch. "I don't want to get used to this. I don't want to lose this. I don't want to lose you. I don't want to drive you away. You think I don't notice, but I do. I do notice. I just… don't know how to get from where I was to where I need to be for this to work."

Lance's hear stopped. Just, flat out stopped. He couldn't possibly be hearing this right. "You… WANT… this… to work?"

His head dropped, hair falling over his face, hiding it from view. "Yeah…"

"Keith, what does 'this working' look like to you?"

"I need to figure out how to be a relationship guy."

"No more random hook-ups?"

"No more random hook-ups. No more sneaking around. No more… saying the opposite of what I want to…"

"Sooo… April?"

"Yeah," he lifted his head, those huge purple eyes locking on him, "I know I don't deserve it, but… can you… not wait, but… just… don't write me off until April. PLEASE, Lance? I'm really trying here. I swear I am."

"I know you are, Keith. I can see that."

"Okay," he relaxed a little, "good. I'm sorry about what I said… to explain my vote. It wasn't true. I just wanted you to get to be with your family again."

He slid his fingers into Keith's hair and pulled him in for a soft kiss. "Okay. April it is."

Because, he denied it, but he knew. He knew he was in love with Keith, and that wasn't ever going to change.

And April wasn't far off.

Spring wasn't too far away.

And if Keith was trying to figure out how to be a relationship guy, Lance knew, in his bones, that he'd succeed…


End file.
